Methods and apparatus for user-based targeted content delivery

ABSTRACT

Methods and apparatus for selecting and delivering advertising or promotional content based on, e.g., the attributes of a desired demographic. In one embodiment, the invention enhances advertising or promotional penetration into a particular demographic of a network subscriber pool by correlating the advertising/promotion (and even the contextual program content) with specific users or groups of users within the pool. This approach decouples the advertising or promotion from any given program or lineup, and gives the network operator flexibility in deciding where, when, and how often to insert advertisements or promotions in order to achieve the desired result. Dynamic network architectures such as broadcast switched architectures can also be leveraged to further enhance flexibility and targeting precision. In effect, the network advertising or promotion model is made results-driven (versus program-centric). Subscriber privacy is also optionally maintained, thus ensuring that stored data is not traceable to a specific user.

PRIORITY AND RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a divisional of and claims priority to co-owned andco-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/284,757 filed on Sep. 24,2008 of the same title and issuing as U.S. Pat. No. 9,071,859 on Jun.30, 2015, and U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/995,655,filed Sep. 26, 2007, and entitled “METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR USER-BASEDTARGETED CONTENT DELIVERY,” each of which is incorporated herein byreference in its entirety. This application is related to U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 10/639,070 filed Aug. 12, 2003 and entitled“TECHNIQUE FOR EFFECTIVELY DELIVERING TARGETED ADVERTISEMENTS THROUGH ACOMMUNICATIONS NETWORK HAVING LIMITED BANDWIDTH” which is incorporatedherein by reference in its entirety.

COPYRIGHT

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains materialthat is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentor the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and TrademarkOffice patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrightrights whatsoever.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of Invention

The present invention relates generally to the field of content deliveryover a network. More specifically, the present invention is in oneexemplary aspect directed to analyzing user-, device-, orpremises-specific information in order to determine the appropriateadvertising or promotional content to be delivered over the network.

2. Description of Related Technology

In cable television networks, advertisements are usually staticallyinterspersed within a given broadcasted program. In this manner, everyCPE in a local service area which is currently tuned to the same programchannel will receive the same advertisements at approximately the sametime and in the same order.

In content-based networks such as cable television networks,advertisements (including without limitation promotions, commercials,and short segments) that are viewed by subscribers can be controlled inseveral ways. Generally, two categories or subdivisions of thesetechniques exist: (i) national- or high-level insertion, and (ii) local-or low-level insertion.

Under national level insertion, national networks (such as NBC, ABC,etc.) are responsible for determining the advertisements or promotionsthat are resident in a given program stream. The pre-configured streamis delivered to the network operator (e.g., MSO), and the MSO merelythen delivers the stream (content and advertisements) to the relevantsubscribers over their network.

Under local-level insertion, the MSO (and even broadcast affiliates) caninsert locally-generated advertisements or commercials and other suchsegments into remotely distributed regional programs before they aredelivered to the network subscribers.

Advertisement time is typically priced based upon an associatedprogram's popularity (and hence its time slot). Such prices are commonlybased on Nielsen Television Ratings, which are ratings determined bymeasuring of the number of unique viewers or households tuned to atelevision program at any one particular time.

The Nielsen system has also recently been expanded from only programcontent to advertising (i.e., Nielsen ratings may be provided foradvertisements themselves).

Nielsen Television Ratings are gathered in one of two ways. One methodinvolves asking viewers of various demographics to keep a written recordof the television shows they watch throughout the day and evening.Another method involves using “Set Meters,” which are small devicesconnected to televisions in selected homes. These devices electronicallygather the viewing habits of the home and transmit the informationnightly to Nielsen over a connected phone line.

There are several disadvantages with employing a Nielsen-like approachto pricing statically interspersed cable advertisements. The first isthat the sample of viewers selected may not be fairly representative ofthe population of cable viewers as a whole. For example, in a cablenetwork comprising four million cable viewers, a sample of any 100,000viewers may exhibit different average viewing habits than the averagesassociated with the other 3,900,000 cable viewers who are not in thesample.

A second disadvantage is that static delivery makes it difficult toperfectly target an audience known to be in the market. For example,suppose that the ideal target for a sports car advertisement is the setof all consumers who like and would be interested in buying sports cars.If all that is known from Nielsen data is that 10% of the sample grouphas watched the auto-racing channel for over three hours in the lastmonth, this may not perfectly correlate with set of consumers who likesports cars. This may be the case, for example, if there are someconsumers who are in the market for sports cars but who never watch theauto racing channel, or if there are some viewers of the auto racingchannel who have no interest in buying or owning sports cars. As such,patterns based on viewership data often imprecisely identify the desiredaudience.

The aforementioned prior art “Nielsen” approach is alsoprogram-specific, and this is a problem from several aspects. First, theefficacy of the advertising is tied to the accuracy of the demographicmodel for that particular program; i.e., that most 18-30 year oldfemales in fact do actually watch American Idol. As a limiting case, ifthe demographic model used had 0% correlation with actual behavior, thenadvertising used based on that demographic model would have acorrespondingly low (or no) effect on the target demographic (e.g.,18-30 year old females), since none of them would be watching AmericanIdol when the advertising was broadcast. Stated simply, the prior artprogram-coupled approach is only as good as the underlying demographiccorrelation model.

Also, the aforementioned demographic model is often limited to oneparticular program. Hence, the 18-30 year old females discussed abovemay tune in dutifully to American Idol each broadcast (e.g., Monday at8:00 pm), but may not have any interest in watching the programimmediately preceding or following American Idol, and hence may tuneaway (or delay tuning to that channel until the start of American Idol).The demographic model for that particular program accordingly may havelittle or no correlation to periods (programs) before or after it, andthus a new demographic model (which may cater to a heterogeneousdemographic from the first, e.g., 40-65 year-old males) would be needed.This has the effect of, inter alia, artificially segmenting or imposingboundaries on the continuity of advertising or promotions; i.e., a given“theme” or demographic cannot be reliably targeted significantly beyondthe program boundaries unless the same demographic or theme continues inthe programming itself. The network operator, network, or other entitymust effectively tailor advertisements/promotions on a per-program basisin some cases if their advertising/promotion is to have maximumefficacy.

A number of other different approaches have been described in the priorart which attempt to facilitate effective targeted advertising orpromotional content delivery. For example, United States PatentApplication Publication No. 20070113243 to Brey published May 17, 2007entitled “Targeted advertising system and method” discloses a targetedadvertising system comprising an interface unit configured to receivebroadcast transmissions, a primary broadcast stream for broadcastprogramming, a secondary broadcast stream for targeted advertisingcontent, and a storage device for storing the targeted advertisingcontent. The method comprises presenting a targeted advertising contentto a user including receiving a primary broadcast stream, receiving asecondary broadcast stream, storing a portion of the secondary broadcaststream in a storage device, and presenting a targeted advertising streamto the user, which may be selected based on a user parameter.

United States Patent Application Publication No. 20070089127 toFlickinger et al. published Apr. 19, 2007 entitled “AdvertisementFiltering and Storage for Targeted Advertisement Systems” discloses anadvertisement storage and filtering system for selectively identifyingtargeted advertisements to be stored in the memory of the STB. Thisstoring of the selected advertisements can be accomplished in a numberof ways. In one embodiment, the advertisements, in real-time and as theyare received at the STB, are processed by the STB and only thoseadvertisements with the appropriate characteristics are stored on thehard drive. This may require some buffering of the advertisements in theSTB memory as the STB processes and determines whether or not to storethe advertisement. The information required to determine whether or notto store the advertisement could also be sent in advance, e.g., as adata service in an advertisement channel. Alternatively, the STB maystore incoming advertisements in a memory temporarily and subsequentlydetermine whether or not to retain the stored advertisements.

United States Patent Application Publication No. 20060277569 to Smithpublished Dec. 7, 2006 entitled “DVR-based targeted advertising”discloses a system for DVR-based targeted advertising. In an embodiment,a targeted advertisement system includes a DVR, an advertisement datastore, and an advertisement manager. The DVR records media content,maintains the recorded media content for on-demand viewing, and providesthe recorded media content for viewing when requested. The advertisementmanager designates advertisement region(s) in the recorded media contentas the media content is being recorded, where an advertisement regionincludes a first boundary and a second boundary to designate theadvertisement region in the media content. The advertisement managermonitors a first data stream of the recorded media content when it isrendered for viewing to detect that a playback position of the firstdata stream has crossed an advertisement region boundary, and toinitiate that an advertisement obtained from the advertisement datastore be provided as a second data stream to render the advertisementfor viewing.

United States Patent Application Publication No. 20060253864 to Eastypublished Nov. 9, 2006 entitled “System and method for householdtargeted advertising” discloses a targeted television advertisementsystem comprising a customer premises equipment at a household andcoupled to a television set, the customer premise equipment, whichcomprises a server operable to access a media storage device anddemand-pull advertising elementary streams customized for a viewer ofthe household, and a splicer operable to receive a program elementarystreams and splice the demand-pulled advertising elementary streams intothe program elementary streams.

United States Patent Application Publication No. 20060253328 to Kohli etal. published Nov. 9, 2006 entitled “Targeted advertising usingverifiable information” discloses a system and a method to matchadvertisement requests with campaigns using targeting attributes, andcampaigns are selected for fulfillment of the advertisement requestaccording to a priority algorithm. The targeting uses end userinformation that is verifiable, and which the user has grantedpermission to use, improving the granularity and accuracy of thetargeting data. The algorithm includes load balancing and campaign stateevaluation on a per campaign, per user basis. The algorithm enablescontrol over the frequency and number of exposures for a campaign,optimizing the advertising both from the perspective of the user and theadvertiser.

United States Patent Application Publication No. 200602483555 toEldering published Nov. 2, 2006 entitled “Targeted advertising throughelectronic program guide” discloses a mechanism for matching ElectronicProgram Guide (EPG) advertisements to subscribers or groups ofsubscribers and delivering those advertisements within the EPG. Thesubscribers are initially characterized in different groups by usingcommercially available data, such as demographic data. Furthermore, thegroups of subscribers may be formed according to their characteristics.These characteristics may be derived from, but are not limited to,demographic data, geographic information or individual subscriberselection data. Subsequent to the formation of the groups, suitableadvertisements to be placed in the EPG avails are selected, based on thematching of the advertisement characteristics to the characteristics ofthe groups, wherein the EPG avails are the advertising opportunitiesavailable within the EPG. Different versions of the EPG having targetedadvertisements may be created, and the different versions may be placedon a download server for transmission over an access system to thesubscriber. At the subscriber end, the different versions of the EPG maybe received and the subscriber end, being assigned to a particulargroup, may receive the EPG which corresponds to that group. Thesubscriber end generally comprises a suitable subscriber interface, suchas, a set-top box (STB) or a cable-ready television having a uniqueidentification.

U.S. Pat. No. 7,228,555 to Schlack issued Jun. 5, 2007 entitled “Systemand method for delivering targeted advertisements using multiplepresentation streams” discloses a system and method for deliveringchannels of presentation streams carrying targeted advertisements in atelevision service network environment. The system includes a generatorfor generating a set of presentation streams for each of programmingchannels, each of the presentation streams in each set having sameprogramming data but different ads directed to advertiser-specificmarket segments of different advertisers. A plurality of local routingstations receives the generated sets of presentation streams. At leastone local routing station processes the sets of presentation streams andselectively switches between the presentation streams in each set tooutput one presentation stream for a programming channel. As a result, apresentation stream carrying the most appropriate advertisement isprovided to a viewer at any given time for at least one programmingchannel.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,738,978 to Hendricks, et al. issued May 18, 2004,entitled “Method and apparatus for targeted advertisement” discloses anetwork controller for use with a digital cable headend capable ofmonitoring and controlling set top terminals in a television programdelivery system. The invention relates to methods and apparatus for anetwork controller that manages a configuration of set top terminals ina program delivery system. The invention is particularly useful inprogram delivery systems with hundreds of channels of programming, amenu driven program selection system, and a program control informationsignal that carries data and identifies available program choices.Specifically, the invention modifies a program control informationsignal at the cable headend before the modified signal is transmitted toeach set top terminal. This signal is used with polling methods toreceive upstream data from the set top terminals. The inventioninitiates such upstream data retrieval, gathers all data received andcompiles viewer demographics information and programs watchedinformation. The invention processes this data and information togenerate packages of advertisements, as well as account and billingreports, targeted towards each set top terminal. The invention usesupstream data reception hardware, databases and processing hardware andsoftware to accomplish these functions.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,718,551 to Swix, et al. issued Apr. 6, 2004 entitled“Method and system for providing targeted advertisements” discloses amethod and system for providing targeted advertisements over a networkedmedia delivery system, especially interactive television networks, thesystem comprising tracking and storing viewer selections, analyzing theselections, and delivering targeted advertisements that appeal to theparticular subscriber making the selections. The system includes a mergeprocessor, a file server, a profile processor, and a broadcast servercontained in a head end in communication with a plurality of set-topboxes through a distribution network. Based on a subscriber's viewinghabits and account information, the invention delivers different,customized advertisements to different viewers watching the same programor channel. The advertisements are delivered as either still frame bitmaps or as video streams advertisement insertion in a playlist or abroadcast media program.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,463,585 to Hendricks, et al. issued Oct. 8, 2002entitled “Targeted advertisement using television delivery systems”discloses a multiple channel architecture designed to allow targetedadvertising directed to television terminals connected to an operationscenter or a cable headend. Program channels carry television programs.During commercial breaks in the television programs, advertisements,which are also broadcast on the program channel, are displayed. However,additional feeder channels carry alternate advertising that may bebetter suited for certain viewing audiences. The operations center orthe cable headend generate a group assignment plan that assigns thetelevision terminals to groups, based on factors such as area ofdominant influence and household income. A switching plan is thengenerated that instructs the television terminals to remain with theprogram channel or to switch to one of the alternate feeder channelsduring the program breaks. The television terminals record whichchannels were viewed during the program breaks, and report thisinformation to the cable headends and the operations center. Thereported information is used to generate billing for commercialadvertisers, and to analyze viewer watching habits. The invention usesupstream data reception hardware, databases and processing hardware andsoftware to accomplish these functions.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,002,393 also issued to Hite, et al. Dec. 14, 1999,entitled “System and method for delivering targeted advertisements toconsumers using direct commands” discloses a system and method fortargeting TV advertisements to individual consumers by delivering aplurality of advertisements to a display site. A command signal is sentto the display site commanding the display of a selected advertisementsuited for the individual consumer. In another embodiment, apredetermined advertisement is delivered upon command from a controlcenter to a viewing site intended for the particular consumer.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,774,170 to Hite, et al. issued Jun. 30, 1998 entitled“System and method for delivering targeted advertisements to consumers”discloses advertising by targeting, delivering and displaying electronicadvertising messages (commercials) within specified programming in oneor more pre-determined households (or on specific display devices) whilesimultaneously preventing a commercial from being displayed in otherhouseholds or on other displays for which it is not intended.Commercials are delivered to specified homes or displays via eitherover-the-air or wired delivery systems.

Despite the foregoing plethora of approaches to “targeted” advertisingand promotions, there is a need for improved methods and apparatus whichmore effectively identify and access groups for content delivery over aninformation network. Such improved methods and apparatus would ideallyidentify one or more users of the delivery network based on informationthat will better correlate with an advertiser's target audience anddemographic. Ideally, these methods and apparatus would be able toselectively utilize multiple sources of information relating to usersand their behavior (thus providing even more precision when attemptingto identify a designated audience) and would leverage flexible networkdelivery paradigms such as broadcast switched architectures.

Such methods and apparatus would also allow for decoupling ofadvertising or promotions from a particular program or time slot,thereby providing the network operator flexibility to insert theadvertising or promotional content in a dynamic fashion based on interalia changing network conditions, and/or cost/benefit decisions. Thisapproach would also permit use of a new more flexible business method(pricing model) for network operators and content sources.

Subscriber anonymity or privacy (i.e., no use of personally identifiableinformation) would also ideally be maintained where desired.

The improved apparatus and methods should also be capable of providingcomplete privacy and anonymity for individual subscribers from which the“targeting” information is obtained.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention addresses the foregoing needs by providing methodsand apparatus adapted to increase the effectiveness of advertising orpromotional content to be delivered over a network to one or morenetwork devices and associated users.

In a first aspect of the invention, a method of delivering targetedadvertising or promotional content to a selected one or more users of acontent-based network is disclosed. In one embodiment, the methodcomprises: identifying the one or more users from the plurality usingdescriptive information relating to the one or more users, thedescriptive information being selected so as to correlate to ademographic or psychographic; identifying one or more advertising orpromotional content elements based at least in part on the descriptiveinformation; and selectively delivering the one or more advertising orpromotional content elements to the one or more users via the network.

In one variant, the identifying one or more advertising or promotionalcontent elements comprises: accessing metadata associated with at leastone of the advertising or promotional content elements; and evaluatingthe correlation of the metadata with the descriptive information. Inanother variant, the network comprises a broadcast switched architecture(BSA) network, and the delivering comprises instantiating a newbroadcast switched program stream comprising the one or more advertisingor promotional content elements.

In a further variant, the one or more users comprises a single user, andthe delivering comprises instantiating a new video on-demand (VoD)session and streaming content via the session, the content comprisingthe one or more advertising or promotional content elements.

In still another variant, the one or more users comprises a single user,and the delivering comprises delivering content comprising the one ormore advertising or promotional content elements according to a networkdigital video recorder (nDVR) or network personal video recorder (nPVR)delivery channel.

Alternatively, the delivering comprises delivering the one or moreadvertising or promotional content elements within a program streamhaving non-advertising or promotional content therein also, and themethod further comprises selecting one or more of the identifiedadvertising or promotional content elements based on a relationshipbetween a theme or context of the selected one or more advertising orpromotional content elements and a theme or context of thenon-advertising or promotional content.

As yet another alternative, the delivering comprises delivering the oneor more advertising or promotional content elements within a programstream having non-advertising or promotional content therein also, andthe one or more advertising or promotional content elements and thenon-advertising or promotional content are contextually related to oneanother in at least one aspect.

In another variant, the method further comprises: receiving feedbackinformation relating to the one or more subscriber's viewing of the oneor more advertising or promotional content elements; and adjusting theat least one of (i) the identifying one or more advertising orpromotional content elements, or (ii) delivery of the elements, based atleast in part on the feedback information. The feedback information maybe selected from the group consisting of, e.g.: (i) informationindicating that one or more of the one or more users has tuned away fromthe advertising or promotional content elements during their delivery;(ii) information indicating that one or more of the one or more usershas turned off consumer premises equipment during delivery of theadvertising or promotional content elements; and (iii) informationindicating that one or more of the one or more users has interacted withtheir consumer premises equipment in a manner related to the advertisingor promotional content elements.

In a further variant, the descriptive information is obtained passivelyfrom the one or more users during network operation; e.g., data relatingto the one or more user's tuning habits.

Alternatively, the descriptive information is obtained from the one ormore users during network operation via an interactive interface withthe users, the interface being adapted to solicit demographic orpsychographic information from the users.

In a second aspect of the invention, an apparatus for use in a contentbased network is disclosed. In one embodiment, the apparatus comprises:a first module adapted to receive information about one or more users ofthe network; a second module adapted to select one or more advertisingor promotional content streams based at least in part on theinformation; and a third module adapted to cause transmission of the oneor more content streams to at least one user of the one or more users.

In one variant, the first module is adapted to receive information aboutthe one or more users by querying a database. For example, the firstmodule may be adapted to receive information about the one or more usersby querying a database such that the database elements queried cannot beused to personally identify any user in the one or more users.

Alternatively, the first module is adapted to receive information aboutthe one or more users by receiving at least one data file from a networksubscriber database. At least a portion of the contents of the at leastone data file are optionally protected; e.g., hashed using a one-wayhash function, the portion of the contents to be hashed comprisinginformation which can be used to personally identify a specific user ofthe one or more users.

In another variant, the information about the one or more userscomprises data related to at least one program content selection from atleast one of the users, such as: (i) a history of program requests, (ii)times at which requested programs were broadcast, (iii) frequency ofchannel changes, (iv), recorded periods of non-activity, and (v) historyon-demand requests.

In still another variant, the information about the one or more userscomprises demographic information, at least portions of the demographicinformation being unique to respective ones of the one or more users.

In a further variant, the apparatus further comprises a fourth module,the fourth module being adapted to create one or more subsets or groupsof users from the one or more users. The one or more subsets arecreated, e.g., based at least in part on demographic information aboutthe one or more users.

In another variant, the apparatus comprises a computerized device, andat least portions of the first, second and third modules comprise acomputer program adapted to run on the computerized device. Thecomputerized device may comprise for example a broadcast switchedarchitecture (BSA) controller, or a VoD server.

In a third aspect of the invention, a method of doing business within acontent-based network is disclosed. In one embodiment, the methodcomprises: receiving a request from a third party for delivery ofadvertising or promotional content over the network, the advertising orpromotional content having at least one target demographic orpsychographic associated therewith; obtaining information about a firstset of users of the network; identifying at least a portion of the firstset of users correlating to the at least one demographic orpsychographic based at least in part on the information; and deliveringthe advertising or promotional content to the at least portion of thefirst set of users based at least in part on the at least onedemographic or psychographic.

In one variant, the method further comprises providing the third partyan assurance or guarantee that the advertising or promotional contentwill be delivered to (or alternatively perceived by) at least a certainnumber of the users within the target demographic.

In a fourth aspect of the invention, a method for non-program restrictedadvertising or promotion delivery within a content-based network isdisclosed. In one embodiment, the method comprises: receiving a requestfrom a third party for delivery of advertising or promotional contentover the network, the advertising or promotional content having at leastone target demographic or psychographic associated therewith; obtaininginformation about a first set of users of the network; identifying atleast a portion of the first set of users correlating to the at leastone demographic or psychographic based at least in part on theinformation; and delivering the advertising or promotional content tothe at least portion of the first set of users based at least in part onthe at least one demographic or psychographic, the delivering beingsubstantially agnostic to program content being delivered to the atleast portion of users substantially contemporaneously with theadvertising or promotional content.

In a fifth aspect of the invention, a method of delivering targetedadvertising or promotional content to one or more users of acontent-based network is disclosed. In one embodiment, the methodcomprises: determining one or more descriptive features associated withthe advertising or promotional content; identifying one or more targetusers of the network based at least in part on the descriptive features;identifying one or more non-advertising or non-promotional contentelements to be delivered over the network; and delivering theadvertising or promotional content to the identified one or more targetusers along with the non-advertising or promotional content elements.The advertising or promotional content and the non-advertising ornon-promotional content elements can optionally be contextually relatedto one another.

For instance, in one variant, the contextual relationship comprises acommon theme.

In another variant, the contextual relationship comprises a commonpersona.

In yet another variant, the contextual relationship comprises a commoninanimate object.

In a further variant, at least one of the one or more descriptivefeatures comprises a basis for the contextual relationship.

In a sixth aspect of the invention, a method of delivering a pluralityof related advertising or promotional content elements to one or moreusers of a content-based network, is disclosed. In one embodiment, themethod comprises: determining one or more descriptive featuresassociated with the plurality of advertising or promotional contentelements; identifying one or more target users of the network based atleast in part on the descriptive features; identifying one or moreprogram content elements to be delivered over the network; anddelivering the plurality of advertising or promotional content elementsto the identified one or more target users along with the programcontent elements, the delivering comprising delivering the plurality ofcontent elements according to a prescribed schedule or sequence.

In one variant, the advertising or promotional content elements arecontextually related to the program content elements.

In another variant, the advertising or promotional content elements areeach contextually related to one another, yet differ from each other inat least one aspect (e.g., each of the elements utilizing a differentpersona, but utilizing the same product or service).

In yet another variant, the prescribed schedule or sequence comprisesdelivering the advertising or promotional content elements at differentpoints within the same one of the one or more program content elements.

In still a further variant, the prescribed schedule or sequencecomprises delivering the advertising or promotional content elementssubstantially one after another with no intervening content.

In another variant, the prescribed schedule or sequence comprisesdelivering the advertising or promotional content elements within thesame one of the one or more program content elements, yet each on adifferent program channel.

In a seventh aspect of the invention, a method of advertising orpromoting goods or services over a content-based network having aplurality of users is disclosed. In one embodiment, the method comprisesdelivering one or more advertising or promotional content elements of anadvertiser or promoter to a target demographic within the plurality ofusers, the delivering being substantially independent of the programcontent with which the advertising or promotional content is delivered;and providing information to the advertiser or promoter relating to thedelivering of the elements.

In one variant, the providing information comprises providing datarelating to actual or estimated impressions of the elements by thetarget demographic.

In another variant, the method further comprises providing a warranty orguarantee to the advertiser that the elements have been delivered to aprescribed number or percentage of target demographic.

In another variant, the network comprises a broadcast-switchedarchitecture (BSA) cable television network, and the deliveringcomprises switching the BSA network so as to selectively provide theelements to the target demographic. The switching so as to selectivelyprovide comprises in one embodiment instantiating a new program streamcomprising the elements for a user within the target demographic whenthe user requests a channel change.

Alternatively, the switching so as to selectively provide comprisesrebinding an existing program stream to a new source, the new sourcebeing adapted to provide the elements.

In an eighth aspect of the invention, a system adapted to delivertargeted advertising within a content-based network is disclosed.

In a ninth aspect of the invention, consumer premises equipment (CPE)adapted to facilitate delivery of targeted advertising to one or moresubscribers is disclosed.

In a tenth aspect, a computer readable storage apparatus is disclosed.In one embodiment, the apparatus comprises a storage medium adapted tostore one or more computer programs, the one or more programs beingadapted to select and deliver targeted advertising or promotionalcontent.

Other features and advantages of the present invention will immediatelybe recognized by persons of ordinary skill in the art with reference tothe attached drawings and detailed description of exemplary embodimentsas given below.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram illustrating an exemplary HFC cablenetwork configuration useful with the present invention.

FIG. 1 a is a functional block diagram illustrating one exemplary HFCcable network headend configuration useful with the present invention.

FIG. 1 b is a functional block diagram illustrating one exemplary localservice node configuration useful with the present invention.

FIG. 1 c is a functional block diagram illustrating one exemplarybroadcast switched architecture (BSA) network useful with the presentinvention.

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram illustrating a method of selecting contentbased on received information in accordance with one embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 2 a is a flow diagram illustrating one variant of the methodillustrated in FIG. 2, wherein personally identifiable user informationis protected.

FIG. 2 b is a flow diagram illustrating a method of processing groupinformation in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 c is a flow diagram illustrating a method of determining groupsfor advertising or promotional content delivery in accordance with oneembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating a method of operating acontent-based network so as to provide dynamically adaptive advertisingor promotion content delivery in accordance with one embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 3 a is a flow diagram illustrating a variant of the method of FIG.3, wherein contextual matching between the program andadvertising/promotional content is utilized.

FIG. 4 illustrates one exemplary network configuration comprising amodified headend in accordance with one embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 4 a illustrates a second exemplary network configuration comprisinga modified distribution hub architecture in accordance with anotherembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a functional block diagram illustrating one embodiment of aninformation analysis module as illustrated in FIGS. 4-4 a.

FIG. 6 is a functional block diagram illustrating one embodiment of acontent assignment module as illustrated in FIGS. 4-4 a.

FIG. 7 a is a block diagram illustrating a first exemplary embodiment ofa network software architecture according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 b is a block diagram illustrating a second exemplary embodimentof a network software architecture according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 c is a block diagram illustrating a third exemplary embodiment ofa network software architecture according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 d is a block diagram illustrating a fourth exemplary embodimentof a network software architecture according to the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a functional block diagram illustrating an exemplaryembodiment of a network device with advertising and promotion selectionfunctionality according to the invention.

FIG. 9 is a functional block diagram illustrating an exemplaryembodiment of CPE adapted to support advertising and promotion selectionfunctionality.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Reference is now made to the drawings, wherein like numerals refer tolike parts throughout.

As used herein, the term “application” refers generally to a unit ofexecutable software that implements a certain functionality or theme.The themes of applications vary broadly across any number of disciplinesand functions (such as on-demand content management, e-commercetransactions, brokerage transactions, home entertainment, calculatoretc.), and one application may have more than one theme. The unit ofexecutable software generally runs in a predetermined environment; forexample, the unit could comprise a downloadable Java Xlet™ that runswithin the JavaTV™ environment.

As used herein, the term “capacity” refers to, without limitation, theability of a network, portion of a network, or component thereof(whether individually or in concert) to provide a requested or neededservice, act, or level of performance. One commonly used metric ofcapacity is so-called “bandwidth”, roughly akin to the size of thechannel or “pipe” capable of carrying content or other information.However, capacity limitations may be imposed by any number of factors,such as the unavailability of the content from a provider (e.g., studioor television network), delays imposed by transmission, filtering,transcoding, encryption/decryption, conditional access establishmentand/or download (e.g., according to a “DCAS” or downloadable conditionalaccess system paradigm), and so forth.

As used herein, the terms “client device” and “end user device” include,but are not limited to, set-top boxes (e.g., DSTBs), personal computers(PCs), and minicomputers, whether desktop, laptop, or otherwise, andmobile devices such as handheld computers, PDAs, personal media devices(PMDs), such as for example an iPod™, or Motorola ROKR, and smartphones.

As used herein, the term “codec” refers to an video, audio, or otherdata coding and/or decoding algorithm, process or apparatus including,without limitation, those of the MPEG (e.g., MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4,etc.), Real (RealVideo, etc.), AC-3 (audio), DiVX, XViD/ViDX, WindowsMedia Video (e.g., WMV 7, 8, or 9), ATI Video codec, or VC-1 (SMPTEstandard 421M) families.

As used herein, the term “computer program” or “software” is meant toinclude any sequence or human or machine cognizable steps which performa function. Such program may be rendered in virtually any programminglanguage or environment including, for example, C/C++, Fortran, COBOL,PASCAL, assembly language, markup languages (e.g., HTML, SGML, XML,VoXML), and the like, as well as object-oriented environments such asthe Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA), Java™ (includingJ2ME, Java Beans, etc.), Binary Runtime Environment (e.g., BREW), andthe like.

As used herein, the term “conditional access” refers to any accesscontrol scheme, whether implemented in hardware, software, or firmware(or combinations thereof), including without limitation members of the“PowerKey™” family, NDS (including VideoGuard, mVideoGuard, etc.), DVB,and Motorola/General Instrument DigiCipher® family (DigiCipher II,etc.). These can be implemented using, for example, CA-specifichardware/software elements embedded in the device, the so-called“CableCARD™” plug-in security module access technology, a downloadableCA system (DCAS), or otherwise.

As used herein, the term “consideration” refers without limitation toany payment, compensation, bargain, barter, release, option, or otherarrangement wherein something of actual, perceived or potential futurevalue (whether by an objective or subjective standard) is given,assigned, transferred or exchanged. For example, one form ofconsideration is a monetary payment. Another comprises an exchange ofservices. Yet another comprises release from an obligation or debt.Still another form comprises a subscription or installment plan. Yet afurther form comprises providing a limited time option Myriad otherforms of consideration will be appreciated by those of ordinary skillgiven the present disclosure.

The terms “Customer Premises Equipment (CPE)” and “host device” refer toany type of electronic equipment located within a customer's or user'spremises and connected to a network. The term “host device” refersgenerally to a terminal device that has access to digital televisioncontent via a satellite, cable, or terrestrial network. The host devicefunctionality may be integrated into a digital television (DTV) set. Theterm “customer premises equipment” (CPE) includes such electronicequipment such as set-top boxes (e.g., DSTBs), televisions, cable modems(CMs), embedded multimedia terminal adapters (eMTAs), whetherstand-alone or integrated with other devices, Digital Video Recorders(DVR), gateway storage devices (Furnace), and ITV Personal Computers.

As used herein, the term “database” refers generally to one or moretangible or virtual data storage locations, which may or may not bephysically co-located with each other or other system components.

As used herein, the term “display” means any type of device adapted todisplay information, including without limitation CRTs, LCDs, TFTs,plasma displays, LEDs, incandescent and fluorescent devices. Displaydevices may also include less dynamic devices such as, for example,printers, e-ink devices, and the like.

As used herein, the term “display element” refers to any user interface(UI) or other structure adapted to be displayed on a display deviceincluding without limitation windows, icons, objects, “tickers” ormenus.

As used herein, the term “DVR” (digital video recorder) refers generallyto any type or recording mechanism and/or software environment wherebycontent sent over a network can be recorded and selectively recalled.Such DVR may be dedicated in nature, or part of a non-dedicated ormulti-function system.

As used herein, the term “DOCSIS” refers to any of the existing orplanned variants of the Data Over Cable Services InterfaceSpecification, including for example DOCSIS versions 1.0, 1.1, 2.0 and3.0. DOCSIS (version 1.0) is a standard and protocol for internet accessusing a “digital” cable network. DOCSIS 1.1 is interoperable with DOCSIS1.0, and has data rate and latency guarantees (VoIP), as well asimproved security compared to DOCSIS 1.0. DOCSIS 2.0 is interoperablewith 1.0 and 1.1, yet provides a wider upstream band (6.4 MHz), as wellas new modulation formats including TDMA and CDMA. It also providessymmetric services (30 Mbps upstream).

As used herein, the term “headend” refers generally to a networkedsystem controlled by an operator (e.g., an MSO) that distributesprogramming to MSO clientele using client devices. Such programming mayinclude literally any information source/receiver including, inter alia,free-to-air TV channels, pay TV channels, interactive TV, and theInternet. DSTBs may literally take on any configuration, and can beretail devices meaning that consumers may or may not obtain their DSTBsfrom the MSO exclusively. Accordingly, it is anticipated that MSOnetworks may have client devices from multiple vendors, and these clientdevices will have widely varying hardware capabilities. Multipleregional headends may be in the same or different cities.

As used herein, the term “integrated circuit (IC)” refers to any type ofdevice having any level of integration (including without limitationULSI, VLSI, and LSI) and irrespective of process or base materials(including, without limitation Si, SiGe, CMOS and GaAs). ICs mayinclude, for example, memory devices (e.g., DRAM, SRAM, DDRAM,EEPROM/Flash, ROM), digital processors, SoC devices, FPGAs, ASICs, ADCs,DACs, transceivers, memory controllers, and other devices, as well asany combinations thereof.

As used herein, the terms “Internet” and “internet” are usedinterchangeably to refer to inter-networks including, withoutlimitation, the Internet.

As used herein, the term “memory” includes any type of integratedcircuit or other storage device adapted for storing digital dataincluding, without limitation, ROM. PROM,

EEPROM, DRAM, SDRAM, DDR/2 SDRAM, EDO/FPMS, RLDRAM, SRAM, “flash” memory(e.g., NAND/NOR), and PSRAM.

As used herein, the terms “microprocessor” and “digital processor” aremeant generally to include all types of digital processing devicesincluding, without limitation, digital signal processors (DSPs), reducedinstruction set computers (RISC), general-purpose (CISC) processors,microprocessors, gate arrays (e.g., FPGAs), PLDs, reconfigurable computefabrics (RCFs), array processors, secure microprocessors, andapplication-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). Such digitalprocessors may be contained on a single unitary IC die, or distributedacross multiple components.

As used herein, the terms “MSO” or “multiple systems operator” refer toa cable, satellite, or terrestrial network provider havinginfrastructure required to deliver services including programming anddata over those mediums.

As used herein, the terms “network” and “bearer network” refer generallyto any type of telecommunications or data network including, withoutlimitation, hybrid fiber coax (HFC) networks, satellite networks, telconetworks, and data networks (including MANs, WANs, LANs, WLANs,internets, and intranets). Such networks or portions thereof may utilizeany one or more different topologies (e.g., ring, bus, star, loop,etc.), transmission media (e.g., wired/RF cable, RF wireless, millimeterwave, optical, etc.) and/or communications or networking protocols(e.g., SONET, DOCSIS, IEEE Std. 802.3, ATM, X.25, Frame Relay, 3GPP,3GPP2, WAP, SIP, UDP, FTP, RTP/RTCP, H.323, etc.).

As used herein, the terms “network agent” and “network entity” refers toany network entity (whether software, firmware, and/or hardware based)adapted to perform one or more specific purposes. For example, a networkagent or entity may comprise a computer program running in serverbelonging to a network operator, which is in communication with one ormore processes on a CPE or other device.

As used herein, the term “node” refers without limitation to anylocation, functional entity, or component within a network.

As used herein, the term “QAM” refers to modulation schemes used forsending signals over cable networks. Such modulation scheme might useany constellation level (e.g. QPSK, 16QAM, 64QAM, 256QAM, etc.)depending on details of a cable network. A QAM may also refer to aphysical channel modulated according to said schemes.

As used herein, the term “network interface” refers to any signal, data,or software interface with a component, network or process including,without limitation, those of the Firewire (e.g., FW400, FW800, etc.),USB (e.g., USB2), Ethernet (e.g., 10/100, 10/100/1000 (GigabitEthernet), 10-Gig-E, etc.), MoCA, Serial ATA (e.g., SATA, e-SATA,SATAII), Ultra-ATA/DMA, Coaxsys (e.g., TVnet™), radio frequency tuner(e.g., in-band or OOB, cable modem, etc.), WiFi (802.11a,b,g,n), WiMAX(802.16), PAN (802.15), or IrDA families.

As used herein, the term “server” refers to any computerized component,system or entity regardless of form which is adapted to provide data,files, applications, content, or other services to one or more otherdevices or entities on a computer network.

As used herein, the terms “service”, “content”, and “stream” aresometimes used synonymously to refer to a sequence of packetized datathat is provided in what a subscriber may perceive as a service. A“service” (or “content”, or “stream”) in the former, specialized sensemay correspond to different types of services in the latter,non-technical sense. For example, a “service” in the specialized sensemay correspond to, among others, video broadcast, audio-only broadcast,pay-per-view, or video-on-demand. The perceivable content provided onsuch a “service” may be live, pre-recorded, delimited in time,undelimited in time, or of other descriptions. In some cases, a“service” in the specialized sense may correspond to what a subscriberwould perceive as a “channel” in traditional broadcast television.

As used herein, the term “storage device” refers to without limitationcomputer hard drives, DVR device, memory, RAID devices or arrays,optical media (e.g., CD-ROMs, Laserdiscs, Blu-Ray, etc.), or any otherdevices or media capable of storing content or other information.

As used herein, the term “trickle download” refers to without limitationany delivery or download mode which is at a rate appreciably less thanthe maximum capability of the extant network over which the downloadedcontent is being delivered. For example, one type of trickle downloadmight comprise a slow, substantially constant rate download “in thebackground” using small amounts of excess primary bandwidth capability.Trickle downloads may programmatic (e.g., predetermined to continue inone session until complete, such as based on a bandwidth reservation),or may also be opportunistic; e.g., conducted in two or more segments asexcess capacity becomes available.

As used herein, the term “user interface” refers to, without limitation,any visual, graphical, tactile, audible, sensory, or other means ofproviding information to and/or receiving information from a user orother entity.

As used herein, the term “wireless” means any wireless signal, data,communication, or other interface including without limitation WiFi(such as IEEE-Std. 802.11 or related standards including 802.11a/b/g/n),Bluetooth, 3G, HSDPA/HSUPA, TDMA, CDMA (e.g., IS-95A, WCDMA, etc.),FHSS, DSSS, GSM, PAN/802.15, WiMAX (802.16), 802.20, narrowband/FDMA,OFDM, PCS/DCS, analog cellular, CDPD, satellite systems, millimeter waveor microwave systems, acoustic, and infrared (i.e., IrDA).

Overview

In one salient aspect, the present invention discloses methods andapparatus for enhancing advertising or promotional penetration into aparticular demographic of a network subscriber pool.

The present invention overcomes the disabilities previously discussed(including inter alia those associated with program-centric advertisingor promotional models) through use of a direct correlation between thesubscribers in the network and the target demographic (orpsychographic).

Instead of relying solely on an externally-based analysis or model suchas Nielsen that assumes that a particular demographic or psychographicof the subscriber pool will be accessed when advertising in associationwith a particular program (as in the prior art), the methods andapparatus of the present invention advantageously place advertisingand/or promotions within the delivered program lineup based on data andinformation gleaned from the target audience itself (e.g., subscribersin a cable or satellite network). This approach affords, inter alia, theability to target certain demographics at various levels of granularity,ranging from a per-subscriber basis to the network subscriber pool as awhole.

At any level of granularity chosen, the result is a more accuratetargeting of the desired demographic(s), since the data relating tosubscriber attributes, CPE configuration, and behaviors used todetermine demographics is derived from and unique to the network onwhich the advertisements or promotions will be carried.

Due to this increased accuracy, the MSO or other network operator canadvantageously provide the advertiser with data relating to the numberand type of viewer “impressions” for their advertising or promotionalcontent. This type of information may be useful to the advertiser (oreven the MSO) in assessing the efficacy of their advertisement orpromotion.

Moreover, the methods and apparatus of the present invention afford theopportunity for the MSO or other network operator to alleviate theadvertiser from having to pick programs or slots, and provide them a“guarantee” of sorts for a certain exposure or number of impressions bythe target demographic(s).

In one embodiment, the methods and apparatus described herein are usedin conjunction with a broadcast switched architecture (BSA) network, thelatter which allows for the near-instantaneous switching of programsbeing delivered to certain portions of the network. This BSA switchingcapability is leveraged in the present invention by providing theability to rapidly switch in and out different targeted program streamsto different subscribers (or groups of subscribers). Hence, targeted“microcasts” can be rapidly set up and torn down, the microcastsspecifically targeting certain demographics within the network.

In other embodiments of the invention, the decision to instantiate a newstream (with targeted advertising content) or utilize an existing streamcan be made dynamically and based on a variety of factors includinge.g., available bandwidth, cost/benefit determinations, and/or datarelating to the subscriber requesting program delivery.

Similarly, NDVD, VoD or other session-based delivery paradigms can betailored or targeted to the requesting subscriber if desired.

Moreover, the insertion of targeted advertising or promotional contentcan be orchestrated across multiple heterogeneous delivery paradigms inorder to achieve the desired degree of penetration or “impressions”.

Subscriber privacy and anonymity is also optionally maintained via e.g.,hashing or encrypting data relating to the CPE and/or subscriber, thusensuring that stored data is not traceable to a specific user account.In alternative embodiments, only information designated by a consumer iseligible for content collection and/or analysis. In this manner,subscriber privacy is effectively safeguarded.

Detailed Description of Exemplary Embodiments

Exemplary embodiments of the apparatus and methods of the presentinvention are now described in detail. While these exemplary embodimentsare described in the context of the aforementioned hybrid fiber coax(HFC) cable architecture having an multiple systems operator (MSO),digital networking capability, and plurality of client devices/CPE, thegeneral principles and advantages of the invention may be extended toother types of networks and architectures where targeted advertising orpromotion is required or desirable, whether broadband, narrowband, wiredor wireless, content or data, or otherwise. Hence, the followingdescription is merely exemplary in nature. For example, the inventionmay be practiced over a fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) or fiber-to-the-curb(FTTC) system or over satellite or millimeter wave-based network havingtwo-way capabilities similar to today's digital cable HFC networks.

It will also be appreciated that while described generally in thecontext of a network providing service to a customer or consumer (i.e.,residential) end user domain, the present invention may be readilyadapted to other types of environments including, e.g.,commercial/enterprise, and government/military applications. Myriadother applications are possible.

It is also noted that while portions of the following discussion arecast primarily in terms of two service levels (i.e., SD and HD), themethods and apparatus disclosed herein can be extended to other numbersand types of service levels. For example, it is foreseeable that yeteven higher levels of definition may be employed in the future (e.g.,“ultra-high definition” or UHD), thereby allowing intelligent bandwidthconservation between three service levels (SD, HD, and UHD). As anotheroption, multiple levels or rates may be present with one of theaforementioned service levels, such as where the SD level includeslevels SD1, SD2, . . . SDn, and/or the HD level similarly includes HD1,HD2, . . . HDn, with each of these sub-levels having different datarates and/or other characteristics. Alternatively, bandwidthconservation according to the present invention may be performed notbased on definition level (data rate), but some other attribute such asfor example the selective availability of a type of service (e.g., OD,IPTV, or DVR/PVR). Various alternate conservation schemes are describedsubsequently herein in greater detail.

It is further noted that while described primarily in the context of 6MHz RF channels, the present invention is applicable to literally anyfrequency/bandwidth, such as for example 8 MHz channels. Furthermore, asreferenced above, the invention is in no way limited to traditionalcable system frequencies (i.e., below 1 GHz), and in fact may be usedwith systems that operate above 1 GHz band in center frequency orbandwidth, to include without limitation so-called ultra-widebandsystems. Additionally, the invention is in no way limited to anyparticular modulation type or medium access scheme, and can beimplemented using for example using QAM, orthogonal frequency divisionmultiplexing (OFDM), sigma-delta modulation (SDM), time-divisionmultiplexing (TDM), etc.

Also, while certain aspects are described primarily in the context ofthe well-known IP or Internet Protocol (described in, inter alia, RFC791 and 2460), it will be appreciated that the present invention mayutilize other types of protocols (and in fact bearer networks to includeother internets and intranets) to implement the described functionality.

It will further be appreciated that while the exemplary embodimentspresented herein are described in the context of services that mayinclude multicast and unicast data, the present invention is applicableto other types of services that include multicast transmission of datadelivered over a network having multiple physical channels or evenvirtual or logical channels.

Bearer Network Architecture—

FIG. 1 illustrates a typical content-based network configuration withwhich the targeted advertising and promotion apparatus and methods ofthe present invention may be used. The various components of the network100 include (i) one or more data and application origination points 102;(ii) one or more content sources 103, (iii) one or more applicationdistribution servers 104; (iv) one or more VoD servers 105, and (v)customer premises equipment (CPE) 106. The distribution server(s) 104,VoD servers 105 and CPE(s) 106 are connected via a bearer (e.g., HFC)network 101. A simplified architecture comprising one of each of theaforementioned components 102, 104, 105, 106 is shown in FIG. 1 for easeof illustration, although it will be recognized that comparablearchitectures with multiple origination points, distribution servers,VoD servers, and/or CPE devices (as well as different networktopologies) may be utilized consistent with the invention. For example,the headend architecture of FIG. 1 a (described in greater detail below)may be used.

The data/application origination point 102 comprises any medium thatallows data and/or applications (such as a VoD-based or “Watch TV”application) to be transferred to an application distribution server104. This can include for example a third party data source, applicationvendor website, CD-ROM, external network interface, mass storage device(e.g., RAID system), etc. Such transference may be automatic, initiatedupon the occurrence of one or more specified events (such as the receiptof a request packet or ACK), performed manually, or accomplished in anynumber of other modes readily recognized by those of ordinary skill.

The application distribution server 104 can be a computer system wheresuch applications can enter the network system. Distribution servers arewell known in the networking arts, and accordingly not described furtherherein.

The VoD server 105 comprises a computer system where on-demand (OD)content can be received from one or more of the aforementioned datasources 102 and enter the network system. These servers may generate thecontent locally, or alternatively act as a gateway or intermediary froma distant source.

The CPE 106 includes any equipment in the “customers' premises” (orother locations, whether local or remote to the application distributionserver 104) that can be accessed by a distribution server 104.

Referring now to FIG. 1 a, one exemplary embodiment of a headendarchitecture useful with the present invention is described. As shown inFIG. 1 a, the headend architecture 150 comprises typical headendcomponents and services including billing module 152, subscribermanagement system (SMS) and CPE configuration management module 154,cable-modem termination system (CMTS) and OOB system 156, as well asLAN(s) 158, 160 placing the various components in data communicationwith one another. It will be appreciated that while a bar or bus LANtopology is illustrated, any number of other arrangements as previouslyreferenced (e.g., ring, star, etc.) may be used consistent with theinvention. It will also be appreciated that the headend configurationdepicted in FIG. 1 a is high-level, conceptual architecture and thateach MSO may have multiple headends deployed using custom architectures.

The exemplary architecture 150 of FIG. 1 a further includes amultiplexer/encrypter/modulator (MEM) 162 coupled to the HFC network 101adapted to process or condition content for transmission over thenetwork. The distribution servers 164 are coupled to the LAN 160, whichprovides access to the MEM 162 and network 101 via one or more fileservers 170. The VoD servers 105 are coupled to the LAN 160 as well,although other architectures may be employed (such as for example wherethe VoD servers are associated with a core switching device such as an802.3z Gigabit Ethernet device). As previously described, information iscarried across multiple channels. Thus, the headend must be adapted toacquire the information for the carried channels from various sources.Typically, the channels being delivered from the headend 150 to the CPE106 (“downstream”) are multiplexed together in the headend as previouslydescribed, and sent to neighborhood hubs (FIG. 1 b) via a variety ofinterposed network components.

It will also be recognized, however, that the multiplexing operation(s)need not necessarily occur at the head-end 150 (e.g., in theaforementioned MEM 162). For example, in one variant, at least a portionof the multiplexing is conducted at a BSA switching node or hub (seediscussion of FIG. 1 c provided subsequently herein). As yet anotheralternative, a multi-location or multi-stage approach can be used, suchas that described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/048,334,entitled “APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR MULTI-STAGE MULTIPLEXING IN ANETWORK” incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, whichdiscloses inter alia improved multiplexing apparatus and methods thatallow such systems to dynamically compensate for content (e.g.,advertisements, promotions, or other programs) that is inserted at adownstream network node such as a local hub, as well as “feed back” and“feed forward” mechanisms for transferring information betweenmultiplexing stages.

Content (e.g., audio, video, data, files, etc.) is provided in eachdownstream (in-band) channel associated with the relevant service group.To communicate with the headend or intermediary node (e.g., hub server),the CPE 106 may use the out-of-band (OOB) or DOCSIS channels andassociated protocols. The OCAP 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 (and subsequent)specification provides for exemplary networking protocols bothdownstream and upstream, although the invention is in no way limited tothese approaches.

It will also be recognized that the multiple servers (broadcast, VoD, orotherwise) can be used, and disposed at two or more different locationsif desired, such as being part of different server “farms”. Thesemultiple servers can be used to feed one service group, or alternativelydifferent service groups. In a simple architecture, a single server isused to feed one or more service groups. In another variant, multipleservers located at the same location are used to feed one or moreservice groups. In yet another variant, multiple servers disposed atdifferent location are used to feed one or more service groups.

“Switched” Networks

FIG. 1 c illustrates an exemplary “switched” network architecture alsouseful with the targeted advertising and promotion features of thepresent invention. While a so-called “broadcast switched architecture”or BSA network is illustrated in this exemplary embodiment, it will berecognized that the present invention is in no way limited to sucharchitectures.

Switching architectures allow improved efficiency of bandwidth use forordinary digital broadcast programs. Ideally, the subscriber will beunaware of any difference between programs delivered using a switchednetwork and ordinary streaming broadcast delivery.

FIG. 1 c shows the implementation details of one exemplary embodiment ofthis broadcast switched network architecture. Specifically, the headend150 contains switched broadcast control and media path functions 190,192; these element cooperating to control and feed, respectively,downstream or edge switching devices 194 at the hub site which are usedto selectively switch broadcast streams to various service groups. A BSAserver 196 is also disposed at the hub site, and implements functionsrelated to switching and bandwidth conservation (in conjunction with amanagement entity 198 disposed at the headend). An optical transportring 197 is utilized to distribute the dense wave-division multiplexed(DWDM) optical signals to each hub in an efficient fashion.

Co-owned and co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/956,688filed Sep. 20, 2001 and entitled “TECHNIQUE FOR EFFECTIVELY PROVIDINGPROGRAM MATERIAL IN A CABLE TELEVISION SYSTEM”, incorporated herein byreference in its entirety, describes one exemplary broadcast switcheddigital architecture useful with the present invention, although it willbe recognized by those of ordinary skill that other approaches andarchitectures may be substituted.

In order for the BSA function to be transparent to the subscriber,channel change latencies are kept to a minimum (e.g., 250 ms or less ascompared to average linear digital broadcast services). Likevideo-on-demand (VoD) systems, BSA programs are streamed to a servicegroup (contrast: switch) only when being viewed. Unlike VoD, manyviewers can view the same stream. Typically, only real-time linearprograms are included in BSA broadcasts. Since there is no storageinvolved, the “VCR” controls (e.g., trick mode functions) common to VoDare not available. In this regard, BSA is much simpler that VoD.Commercials or other programming segments cannot be skipped, and programbitrates can be treated as in more conventional systems.

In the context of the aforementioned BSA network, there are severalmetrics or indices which are useful in evaluating the performance of thenetwork. Specifically, the expression “peak streams” represents themaximum number of different program streams that are instantaneously(based on specified data intervals) needed. Using software, peak streamrequirements can be analyzed for each group size. It has been noted bythe Assignee hereof that generally speaking, as service group size isdecreased, peak stream needs also decrease. When viewed over asufficiently short time scale (e.g., two hour periods), it is possibleto compare the moment-to-moment variability in peak stream use. Notethat the physical network topology (which determines service group size)can also be modified, and is expected to migrate towards smaller groupsof subscribers over time.

It has also been noted that the smaller service groups display roughlythe same variability as the larger service groups down to a certainthreshold size. When considered as a percentage of maximum stream use,as service group size decreases beyond this threshold, variabilityincreases, and will impose a limit the amount of concentration that canbe safely implemented within the system. Concentration in the context ofBSA networks is defined as a ratio of the total bandwidth of theprograms offered, to the BSA bandwidth provided to the service group.While this is conveniently expressed as a ratio of stream counts, inpractice streams will be of various bitrates; concentration is thereforebest thought of as the ratio of the bitrates. Concentration generally(at a given grade of service or blocking frequency) trends upwards withdecreasing service group size.

Another useful metric of the value of BSA is yield. Yield is a functionof concentration and the total number of programs included. Yield isimportant to consider when comparing the value of various bandwidthreclamation techniques.

As verified by actual trials conducted by the Assignee hereof, BSAprovides significant concentration, which results in the ability tovacate significant portions of the previously occupied bandwidth (“free”bandwidth yield).

Also of interest is the metric of “redundant viewership”. Redundantviewers are those which view otherwise unique programs. Generallyspeaking, the highest number of redundant viewers occurs at prime-timeor just post prime time. This is also the time of greatest totalviewership and the time of highest peak stream needs. A design point ofX streams would provide a non-blocking grade of service; however,however, significant surplus bandwidth still exists below the X-streamlevel. Unfortunately, the greatest surpluses occur at times when otherservices (e.g., VoD) also have their lowest demands. Edge QAM resourcesharing with VoD is therefore not expected to provide significantinterleaving bandwidth gains. However, the BSA system can beadvantageously operated to allow this surplus bandwidth to be utilizedin other ways, such as for transport of data, video, voice, or evenfuture applications which would require additional bandwidth.

Gain is a useful parameter for comparison of BSA with statisticalmultiplexing technology. In BSA, percent gain is defined as:

(Concentration−1)×100  Eqn. (1)

In this context, content that occupies the “freed up” spectrum isassumed to operate with the same level of efficiency as the contentbeing processed (i.e. switched under the BSA architecture, oralternatively statistically multiplexed).

A primary advantage of the BSA paradigm is bandwidthconservation/preservation. Bandwidth for unviewed programs is notconsumed, and can be re-allocated. Similarly, new programs can be addedwithout adding bandwidth. Advantageously, programs with narrow appealcan be added in a BSA system with little if any bandwidth impact. Morepopular programs will impact the BSA bandwidth, but to a lesser extentthan was traditionally the case. Multiple bitrates can also be madeavailable for use or sale to programmers or advertisers.

BSA bandwidth efficiencies are at least in part a result ofover-subscription. Specifically, the selection of programming is greaterthan the bandwidth allocated to the service group. This can result inblocking, the case where a viewer is denied access to a requestedprogram. However, the aforementioned trials conducted by the Assigneehereof demonstrate that when properly configured, blocking events aresufficiently rare, so as to be less common than a network outage,thereby providing a sufficient level of service.

Additionally, a BSA system typically gathers and keep logs or otherrecords of programmer-specific viewership data. For example, the BSAserver gathers logs that are based on the client-server interactions.These logs or records are maintained to allow for well-considered“recapture” of non-viewed program streams (i.e., reclamation ofbandwidth). The server manages bandwidth by removing streams based onthis activity data. In typical practice, unviewed streams will bemarked, but not actually removed until the bandwidth is needed eitherbecause of a client request, or based on external resource demands suchas VoD overflow.

In one exemplary embodiment, the network session manager (BSA manager)logs all channel change events and is aware of the tuning locations ofall tuners, not just those that happen to be viewing BSA programs. Thisprovides highly accurate and complete viewership data based on actualchannel changes as contrasted with extrapolations or other estimationtechniques.

In the exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the edge switch194 (generally located in the distribution hub as shown in FIG. 1 c) isflooded with all available programs. This improves transport efficiency,because a simple unidirectional “drop and continue” protocol isperformed at each hub location on a given optical transport ring 197.The concept of flooding also simplifies the transport network in that nocontrol system is needed; rather a simple “deliver everything” paradigmis used. This approach also advantageously makes this portion of thesignal chain more robust, since more complex control systems generallylend themselves to a higher operational failure rate.

Because ordinary broadcast programming is supplied using BSA, thetransport network 197 needs to have a high degree of availability. Inthe exemplary embodiment, BSA program transport is supplied through aredundant, spatially diverse counter-rotating Ethernet ring topology,although other topologies may be utilized with success.

In addition to “broadcast” content (e.g., video programming), thesystems of FIGS. 1 a and 1 c also deliver Internet data services usingthe Internet protocol (IP), although other protocols and transportmechanisms of the type well known in the digital communication art maybe substituted. One exemplary delivery paradigm comprises deliveringMPEG-based video content, with the video transported to user PCs (orIP-based STBs) over the aforementioned DOCSIS channels comprising MPEG(or other video codec such as H.264 or AVC) over IP over MPEG. That is,the higher layer MPEG- or other encoded content is encapsulated using anIP protocol, which then utilizes an MPEG packetization of the type wellknown in the art for delivery over the RF channels. In this fashion, aparallel delivery mode to the normal broadcast delivery exists; i.e.,delivery of video content both over traditional downstream QAMs to thetuner of the user's STB or other receiver device for viewing on thetelevision, and also as packetized IP data over the DOCSIS QAMs to theuser's PC or other IP-enabled device via the user's cable modem.

Referring again to FIG. 1 c, the IP packets associated with Internetservices are received by edge switch 194, and forwarded to the cablemodem termination system (CMTS) 199. The CMTS examines the packets, andforwards packets intended for the local network to the edge switch 194.Other packets are discarded or routed to another component.

The edge switch 194 forwards the packets receive from the CMTS 199 tothe QAM modulator 189, which transmits the packets on one or morephysical (QAM-modulated RF) channels to the CPE. The IP packets aretypically transmitted on RF channels that are different that the RFchannels used for the broadcast video and audio programming, althoughthis is not a requirement. The CPE 106 are each configured to monitorthe particular assigned RF channel (such as via a port or socketID/address, or other such mechanism) for IP packets intended for thesubscriber premises/address that they serve.

Methods—

Referring now to FIGS. 2-3 a, exemplary embodiments of the methodologyaccording to the present invention are described.

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram illustrating a generalized method 200 ofselecting advertising or promotional content based on subscriberinformation in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.This method may be used for example in response to a subscriber requestfor content, such as a VoD session request, switching to a prescribedBSA-delivered program channel, requesting an IPTV video, and so forth.To this extent, the method of FIG. 2 is substantiallysubscriber-centric, in effect selecting advertising or promotionalcontent using subscriber identity, data or demographics and entry point.

Initially, information associated with one or more relevant networkusers (e.g., the aforementioned subscriber requesting a VoD session) isobtained at step 202. This information comprises for example one or morepersonal attributes or characteristics, such as without limitation name,address, age, race, ethnicity, gender, anatomical dimensions such asweight or height, physical or mental conditions, marital status, familysize, number of dependents, sexual orientation, religious persuasion,political affiliation, net worth, income, types and number ofautomobiles owned, country of citizenship, languages spoken, occupation,hobbies, and personal preferences. This information may also comprisehistorical viewing patterns and/or viewing behavior (actual orextrapolated). Myriad other types of information may also be collectedin accordance with the scope of the present invention.

The foregoing information may be received dynamically (e.g.,periodically or anecdotally from the subscriber or his/her CPE 106), orcomprise historical information such as that contained in a subscriberdatabase or other data repository. Algorithms or other such means mayalso be utilized to derive one or more pieces of information from others(so-called “derivatives”). For example, where a given subscriberdeclined to provide any financial information to the MSO, but is knownto live in a Beverly Hills, Calif. zip code, the MSO would have a goodconfidence that the subscriber was in a higher income/net worthcategory. If that same subscriber further indicated that they own seven(7) automobiles and lists “real estate investing” as a hobby, thisinformation could be used to increase the confidence level of thatderivative assumption regarding income/wealth.

It will also be recognized that various types of subscriber-relatedinformation can be used to derive a psychographic or behavior-centricprofile. For example, it may be speculated that subscribers who arechronic “channel hoppers”, power up their CPE at exactly the same timeevery day, send in their cable account bill on the same day every month,and who frequently watch Monk are potentially obsessive-compulsive (OC).This type of psychographic profile may be useful to advertisers lookingto access such subscribers, such as for promoting a new medication forOC or OC-related disorders, for automated electronic bill-pay services,for closet or garage organizing shelves, etc.

At step 204, advertising or promotional content is matched or selectedfor potential use based on the collected user information. In oneembodiment, this is accomplished by comparing the collected userinformation against a set of advertising or promotional contentdescriptors. For instance, first advertising content might comprisemetadata that indicates that: (i) the advertisement relates toautomobiles, and (ii) the advertisement is particularly geared towardhigh-income older males (based on, e.g., the type of car beingadvertised). When this metadata is compared to user-based data (e.g.,metadata generated based on the subscriber information obtained per step202), a match may be generated, such as where the user from which thedata was obtained is a high-income older male.

It will be appreciated, however, that the foregoing model is simplifiedfor purposes of illustration; much more sophisticated approaches toadvertising content and subscriber demographic data evaluation andmatching may be employed. The MSO can advantageously make itsimplementation as detailed or simplistic as it desires (or as coarse orfine a match as desired), and even dynamically alter the evaluation andmatching rule sets applied under different operational or businessclimates. For instance, a first rule set might be imposed during normaloperation, and a second rule set during maintenance or equipment failureperiods. Or, a first rule set could be applied during prime-time, anddifferent rule sets during other periods. As yet another alternative,different rule sets could be applied during different holidays (orholiday season, such as the “Christmas rule set”), which are differentthan the normal rule sets. An almost limitless number of different rulesets and permutations are possible under the present invention.

In some variants, one or more thresholds or other criteria are used inorder to identify ostensibly relevant user information. For example, arule may be imposed such that if at least a certain percentage of thesubscribers under consideration satisfy a certain condition (forinstance, at least 60% of the consumers within the group are female)then that particular condition would be considered relevant for thepurposes of the of the content selection process. In the above example,any content comprising a descriptor indicating “female” as a preferredtarget audience would then be considered an eligible candidate forcontent selection. This process can be applied across multipleconditions or parameters as desired. Moreover, it can be applied to oneindividual; i.e., all facets of that particular individual may beconsidered “relevant” for the content selection and matching process.

In another embodiment, a priority scheme indicates which candidate amongthe set of all eligible n candidates (n greater than or equal to 1)should be selected for content delivery. This scheme may rank orprioritize users on any number of different criteria. In one simpleexample, subscribers are “graded” on their correlation or adherence to aparticular target demographic, such as via a percentage or othernumerical system. Alternatively, a fuzzy logic, Bayesian, orDempster-Shafer approach may be used to assign priority (e.g., “highcorrelation”, “medium correlation”, “low correlation”), and so forth. Inone embodiment, this priority scheme is encoded into the controllinglogic of an advertising/promotional content selection module (APCSM)401, described subsequently herein with respect to FIGS. 4-5. In certainvariants, the priority scheme is customizable and may be provided asinput to the content selection module.

At step 206, the selected content is delivered to the relevantsubscriber(s) that are part of the target demographic. In oneembodiment, this delivery is accomplished by directing the relevantsubscribers to tune to an unused transmission channel for receipt of asubstitute set of advertisements, such as via the targetingadvertisement methods described in co-owned and co-pending U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 10/639,070 filed Aug. 12, 2003 and entitled“TECHNIQUE FOR EFFECTIVELY DELIVERING TARGETED ADVERTISEMENTS THROUGH ACOMMUNICATIONS NETWORK HAVING LIMITED BANDWIDTH,” which is incorporatedherein by reference in its entirety. The relevant subscribers may havetheir CPE 106 forcibly tuned to the unused channel based on commandssent from the headend or other network location ((.g., via an immediateupdate to their program mapping table, via existing BSA clientprotocols, or the like) so as to present a seamless and effortlesstransition to the subscriber, or alternatively a new program stream canbe instantiated (e.g., using the aforementioned BSA techniques) with therelevant advertising or promotional content spliced therein, the user'sCPE then being directed to tune to the newly generated program channel.

As other alternatives, a technique know as “re-binding”, oralternatively a payload substitution, may be used in place of a forcedre-tuning consistent with the invention. For example, in one embodiment,a BSA switch or other device in the network can switch a new source ofadvertising or promotional content into an existing program stream,thereby obviating the need for the subscriber's CPE tuner to physicallytune to another QAM. Using payload substitution, the payload or encodedcontent of an existing stream can effectively be replaced, such as wherethe existing advertisements or promotions or replaced before broadcast.Such techniques are well known to those of ordinary skill in the cabletelevision arts, and accordingly not described further herein.

In other embodiments, information may be returned pertaining to thegroup of all content consumers presently requesting content. In many ofthese embodiments, this information is reflective of only those contentconsumers comprised within a certain service area, distribution area,and/or geographic area (see discussion of “granularity” presentedsubsequently herein).

It will be appreciated that the user(s) from which information isobtained per step 202 of the method 200 of FIG. 2 need not necessarilybe the same user(s) to which the advertising or promotional content isdelivered per step 206. For instance, a plurality of

FIG. 2 a illustrates one variant of the method depicted by FIG. 2. Thismethodology 220 is generally similar to that of FIG. 2, yet at step 222,at least a portion of the user information which could be used topersonally identify a particular subscriber is first privacy-protected(e.g., hashed, scrambled, or otherwise enciphered). This process can beaccomplished in a variety of ways. For example, in one embodiment, aone-way cryptographic hashing function is utilized, such as the hashingfunctions described in co-owned and co-pending U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 11/186,452 filed Jul. 20, 2005 and entitled “METHOD ANDAPPARATUS FOR BOUNDARY-BASED NETWORK OPERATION,” which is incorporatedherein by reference in its entirety. In another embodiment,advertisements may be selected and delivered according to information ina feature repository which does not comprise personally identifiableinformation, such as via the methods described in co-owned andco-pending U.S. Patent Publication No. 20050060742 published Mar. 17,2005 and entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR TARGETED DISTRIBUTION OFADVERTISING WITHOUT DISCLOSURE OF PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION,”which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety as well. TheMAC address, TUNER ID and/or TUNER USE variables are hashed so that theidentity of the originating CPE/subscriber are anonymous. In thismanner, subscriber privacy is effectively maintained. The actual dataitself (e.g., tuning history, subscriber preferences, etc.) may also beencrypted (e.g., using symmetric or asymmetric key encryption) orotherwise protected if desired, such as to prevent theft or misusethereof, although the information is effectively of little use withoutknowing which subscriber originated it.

It will also be appreciated that the data may be first obtained andprocessed, and then hashed or otherwise protected as previouslydescribed.

In other embodiments, at least a portion of the user information whichcould be used to personally identify a particular content consumer issimply not transmitted or used in the first instance. For example, thesubscriber may not want certain information about themselves or habitsutilized by the MSO, whether hashed for anonymity or not.Advantageously, this provides additional privacy protection and requiresno additional logic for resident hashing, scrambling, or encipheringprocesses. It also reduces the precision with which the MSO ordesignated algorithmic process can identify a particular demographic orpsychographic, however.

In still other variants, subscribers are given a choice as to whether to“opt-in” or “opt-out” of the information collection process (orselective portions thereof). In one such variant, the user can controlaccess to various types of user information such that onlyuser-designated or approved information is eligible for collectionand/or analysis. For example, a given user may grant access toinformation about his historical viewing patterns (such as mostfrequently requested programs), but deny access to more personalinformation (such as age, income, and occupation). This restriction orcontrol can be imposed at the MSO end (e.g., by restricting access tocertain portions of the MSO subscriber database by the APCSM), or at theCPE 106 (e.g., through a client application or middleware module whichprevents certain data from being “mined” from the CPE or connecteddevices, or transmitted upstream).

It will be noted that the MSO may passively glean tuner activityinformation relating to a particular subscriber based on inter alia,channel-change requests sent from the CPE 106 upstream. This can bepositively correlated to a given CPE (such as via the TUNER ID or TUNERUSE variables, or MAC), which can then be positively correlated to agiven subscriber account via, e.g., the MSO subscriber database. So asto mitigate any loss of subscriber privacy (for both commercial andlegal reasons), methods such as the aforementioned use of an “opaque”variable or cryptographic has may be employed. Accordingly, under suchan approach, the MSO will be able to maintain CPE-specific data (e.g.,what programs were selected when, when the CPE was powered up or down,CPE-specific logged errors, VoD delivery requests and session behavior,etc.) since each CPE 106 can be specifically albeit anonymouslyidentified by its cryptographic hash. Only when the subscriber “opts in”and permits access to personal data, or association of this hash withits identity (i.e., subscriber account or other such information), willthe subscriber's personal information be utilized by the APCSM.

Myriad other privacy protection measures are also possible in accordancewith the scope of the present invention, including without limitationencryption of various portions of the sensitive personal data accordingto e.g., a public/private encryption key pair or the like.

Next, at step 224, the user-related (or CPE-related) information isreceived or obtained as described previously with respect to FIG. 2.

At step 226, the content (e.g., advertisement or promotion) is selectedbased at least in part on the user/CPE information, and the contentdelivered per step 228.

FIG. 2 b is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary embodiment of amethod 230 of obtaining information with respect to one or more users(and their related subscriber accounts and/or CPE as applicable) inaccordance with one embodiment of the present invention. This processwould be used, for example, by the APCSM to obtain information relatingto a subscriber of interest (or groups of subscribers) as part ofobtaining information per step 202 of the method 200 of FIG. 2, such aswhere the subscriber or group of subscribers is the input to theprocess, and the MSO (via the APCSM) desires to identify contentrelevant to these specific individuals or groups. Consider the case, forexample, where an individual subscriber requests delivery of a VoDstream, or switches their BSA-delivered programming to a new channel,and the MSO desires to target these deliveries using particularadvertising or promotional content.

Alternatively, the methodology of FIG. 2 b may be used to identifyspecific subscribers or groups of subscribers based on theirdemographics/psychographics, where the advertising or promotionalcontent is used as the entry argument (e.g., find all of the subscribersin the MSO network that “match” the demographic of a particularadvertisement).

Step 232 of FIG. 2 b comprises determining whether a request forinformation have yet been received. It will be appreciated that thisstep may be performed anecdotally, such as upon request by the APSCM,periodically (such as e.g., every hour), or according to anotherimplementation scheme.

In certain embodiments, the request for information further comprises aset of arguments or input parameters. These arguments/parameters mayfurther specify the individual or group for which information is to becollected. For example, in an embodiment utilizing Boolean logic, theset of arguments “status: married AND (age: >40 OR activity: travel)”would refer to the set of married consumers who are either over the ageforty or who frequently travel. Note that the above example is merelyillustrative of the broader principles; myriad other methods forspecifying or delimiting a certain group are also possible in accordancewith the scope of the present invention.

After a request for group information has been received, the groupinformation is then requested at step 234. At step 236, the request isprocessed (e.g., a subscriber database searched for subscribers matchingthe input parameters), and a determination is subsequently made as towhether the request for group information was successful per step 238.If the request was successful, the requested data is returned at step240. If the request was unsuccessful, the error is handled accordinglyat step 242. In certain embodiments, the aforementioned error handlingprocedure involves adjusting one or more parameters in the query (e.g.,changing Boolean operator logic, expanding ranges of criteria, etc.),and repeating the request, before aborting the operation. In manyembodiments, any errors are recorded to a log that can be subsequentlyaccessed by one or more processes and/or a human operator.

Alternatively, instead of evaluating the success or failure of therequest, the method of FIG. 2 b may comprise grading each of theidentified subscriber records according to grading schema (as describedelsewhere herein). For example, one such schema might compriseidentifying and quantifying those who matched one Boolean criterion,those which met two criteria, and s forth. Each subscriber who matchedat least one criterion would then be graded, and the graded subscribersranked. Myriad other approaches will be recognized by those of ordinaryskill.

FIG. 2 c is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary embodiment of themethod 250 of determining groups based on content information inaccordance with one embodiment of the present invention. Initially, atstep 252, a determination is made as to whether there is any morecontent to be analyzed. The content-related information is received atstep 254. In one embodiment, this content information comprises a set ofdescriptors for a given content element or stream. For example, the XMLmetadata descriptors “advertisement, restaurant, Italian, family, SanDiego” might be used to indicate an advertisement for an Italianfamily-style restaurant located in San Diego.

At step 256, individual or groups of subscribers are selected which bestmatch the provided content identifiers. These subscribers may beidentified ad hoc; i.e., as a result of the content evaluation process,or alternatively via prior analysis and categorization by the MSO, suchas via a subscriber database, etc.

In one embodiment, the matching process of step 256 is accomplished bytraversing a set of relevant individual or group descriptors. Asdescribed elsewhere herein, according to some embodiments, one or morethresholds or grading criteria may be used in order to identify relevantsubscribers/information. For example, a rule may be imposed such that ifat least a certain percentage of the content consumers comprised withina group of subscribers that are otherwise logically related satisfy acertain condition (for instance, at least 60% of the consumers within agroup comprising subscribers served by the same local networkdistribution node, or within the same zip code, are female), then thatparticular condition would be considered relevant for the purposes ofthe of the subscriber selection process.

In some embodiments, eligible individuals or groups are assigned apriority or weight based upon their correspondence to certain contentdescriptors. For instance, in the restaurant example given above, agroup of subscribers referenced by the descriptor “location: San Diego10%” might be given less weight or a lower score than a group referencedby the descriptor “location: San Diego 30%” since it has been determinedthat there is a larger percentage of consumers residing in the San Diegoarea in the second group than the first group (who would be more likelyto frequent a restaurant located in San Diego). On the other hand, agroup “location: San Diego 10%; activity: dine 80%; preference: Italian70%” might be given more weight than “location: San Diego 30%, activity:dine 25%; preference: Italian 20%”, since in this case there is a highercorrelation or “tighter fit” with the other descriptors in thedescriptor set. The above example is merely illustrative of the broaderprinciples; myriad other possible priority or weight assignment schemescan be used in accordance with the present invention. In one embodiment,these priority/weight assignment schemes comprise an MSO-customizableinput to the APCSM 401; e.g., the MSO or root advertiser can customizethe degree of matching necessary in order to achieve penetration of atarget demographic.

Once the appropriate individual(s) or group(s) have been selected, anycontent/group pairing is indicated in step 258. In one embodiment, thisis accomplished by populating content entries in a schedule, table,database, or other such similar data structure.

Per step 260, the selected groups (if any) are evaluated to determinenumber of members, so that the number of “impressions” resulting fromthe content delivery can optionally be estimated.

Delivery is then scheduled at step 262. This scheduling can beaccomplished using a broad range of different techniques, dependinglargely on the granularity level selected. For example, in one variant(e.g., maximum granularity), scheduling of delivery of the content tothe target group(s) comprises scheduling for delivery of particularindividuals, and the delivery can be attempted during use of the networkby those individuals (e.g., when they request a VoD session, when theytune their CPE to a then-undelivered BSA program channel, therebycausing that channel to be instantiated, etc.). This approach allows fornear instantaneous modification of the delivered program stream, whetherby switching the target subscriber to an unused program channel fortargeted advertisements, splicing the targeted advertisements into anexisting stream, re-binding an existing stream to another source, etc.In effect, the APSCM is scheduling n different deliveries of the targetadvertisement or promotion, where n comprises the number of differentsubscribers/CPE who meet the prescribed demographic or psychographiccriteria. These n different deliveries advantageously may be eithercoupled or wholly unrelated in terms of schedule. For example, where theMSO has identified subscribers X Y and Z as meeting the targetdemographic and being within the same BSA delivery node, and determinesthat both X and Y are watching the same program channel at the sametime, it may situationally “splice in” the target advertisement, therebyobtaining two impressions from the target demographic. If X tunes awaybefore delivery, then the impressions counter (described below) onlyrecords one prospective impression (Y), and the scheduling moduleschedules a second attempt for X, as discussed below.

It will be appreciated that the aforementioned “maximum granularity”approach may also be implemented for individual subscribers irrespectiveof their identity. For instance, in one variant, the subscriber'sparticular identity is known, and decisions relating to selection,scheduling and delivery made based at least in part on their identity(i.e., we know that CPE 123456 belongs to John Smith who lives in zipcode 92131, and that John Smith likes sports cars and owns a Ford, soadvertisements for the new Ford Mustang would be well correlated to JohnSmith). In another variant, the subscriber's identity is kept hidden,and certain identifying information kept separate or segregated from useby the APCSM algorithms. In one such variant, a cryptographic hash of asubscriber's CPE MAC address, TUNER ID or TUNER USE variable maintainedby the MSO, and only this hash (versus the subscriber's actual identity,address, SSN, etc.) is associated with demographic or psychographic datauseful for the advertising process. Stated differently, the MSO databaseused by the APCSM in this latter variant knows a subscriber only bytheir CPE (hash), and perhaps knows other relevant but non-descriptiveinformation (e.g., zip code where they live, job, income, hobbies,etc.).

At a higher level of granularity (e.g., groups of subscribers that arelogically related by way of one or more criteria) can be targeted. Forinstance, as previously described, all male subscribers over age 50 wholive in zip code 92101 and are sports car owners or enthusiasts can bereadily identified within an MSO database. This logical relationship ordemographic may be what the sports car advertiser wishes to target.Scheduling of delivery of the sports car advertisement in this case isdifferent than in the maximal granularity embodiment previouslydescribed, since individual delivery modes for each member of the groupare not necessarily used. Rather, common delivery modes are identifiedand used where possible. For example, once the aforementioned group ofrelated subscribers are identified, their profiles or viewing habits maybe evaluated to identify any common viewing patterns. These may includee.g., (i) watching common programs or program channels; (ii) watchingthe same or different programs/channels at common times (e.g., earlymorning before work); (iii) frequent or infrequent use of features suchas “telescoping” advertisements, etc. These data can be utilized by theAPCSM to select the best common delivery mode for the exemplary sportscar advertisement; e.g., on the commonly watched program/channel of item(i) above; at certain times of day across many different channels foritem (ii); or as part of a telescoping advertisement for item (iii).

It should be noted that the program-centric approach of item (i) abovediffers from that of the prior art previously discussed in that, interalia, the target group is identified by MSO data and is particular tothat network, versus merely a loose projection/correlation (i.e., thatcertain types of people watch certain types of programs) that is basedon data that bears no particular relationship to the MSO's particularnetwork. However, it will be recognized that implementation of thepresent invention need not be an “all or nothing” proposition; in fact,the methods and apparatus of present invention can advantageously bemixed to any degree desired with prior art program-based techniques,whether across different portions of the network (e.g., one servicegroup or hub operating according to a first scheme, and a secondaccording to a second scheme), across different time slots or periods inthe same (or different) portions of the network (e.g., one scheme forprime time, and another for all non-prime times, within the same servicegroup), or even across different program channels (e.g., major networkchannels operate on one scheme, and other channels operate on a secondscheme).

Myriad other schemes for identifying and exploiting such “common”delivery modes will be recognized by those of ordinary skill given thepresent disclosure.

Moreover, under the more “granular” methods previously discussed, theMSO (or advertiser) can know who is watching what channel at what time(whether explicitly, or anonymously using the privacy protection methodsdescribed elsewhere herein) based on channel change and tuning eventsinstigated by that subscriber/CPE and recorded at the headend 150 orswitching hub (or even the CPE 106), and use this information within ahistorical/predictive framework. For example, the MSO can associate theaforementioned subscriber/CPE with particular historical viewing habits(see, e.g., the methods and apparatus described in co-pending andco-owned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/243,720 entitled“SELF-MONITORING AND OPTIMIZING NETWORK APPARATUS AND METHODS” filedOct. 4, 2005, incorporated herein by reference in its entirety), whetheron an individual basis (i.e., utilizing historical information for thatparticular subscriber/CPE), or on a generic basis (e.g., using data fromthat subscriber's service group, zip code, or the network/region as awhole). Predictive template or artifact matching may also be utilized topredict subscriber activity on an individual or group basis (e.g.,subscriber X has tuned to “24” every Monday night for the past tenweeks, and therefore can be expected to do so this Monday evening, or75% of subscribers in Service Group M have tuned to “24” every Mondayfor the past ten weeks, etc.), as described for example in co-owned anco-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/800,093 entitled “METHODSAND APPARATUS FOR PREDICTIVE CAPACITY ALLOCATION” filed May 4, 2007 andincorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

At yet a higher level of granularity, larger pools of subscribers may beevaluated and used as a basis for selecting delivery modes, whetherstatistically or anecdotally. Note that this high-level analysis mayalso advantageously be performed irrespective of the identification ofany particular subscriber or CPE, or when they are viewing what channel,etc. For example, the APCSM may garner statistical/historical dataregarding the tuning behavior, bandwidth demand, etc. associated withgroups of subscribers or the network as a whole without having to accessparticular subscriber account/CPE information. A historical peak inbandwidth consumption on the day of the NFL division championship game,for example, that generally coincides with the start time of the gamecan be presumed to occur each year at that same day/time. If theprospective advertiser/MSO knows that since a certain city's team isplaying in this year's division championship game, a larger fraction ofa given MSO's subscribers (where that MSO covers the relevant territory)will be from, or areas adjacent to, that city. Hence, if that advertiserwishes to access a demographic of residents of that city (perhaps for ageographically localized car sales promotion or the like), the MSO canschedule the advertisement for that time slot, without knowing which ofits subscribers are watching at that time, in what precise locationthose subscribers live, etc. Stated differently, this approach is very“dumb” by comparison to the more granular approaches, since it requireslittle or no a priori knowledge of or data for individual subscribers,or data regarding their current activities.

Of course, the precision of targeting certain demographics orpsychographics under this highly granular approach is also much lessthan that of the more granular approaches previously described, but itadvantageously reduces the processing overhead and level of detailedanalysis (and information) necessary for implementation.

Relevant to the present discussion is also the concept of “saturation”.In the present context, saturation refers to how many views orimpressions a given subscriber receives for a given advertisement orpromotion, and also optionally the temporal relationship of thesediscrete impressions. For instance, a subscriber who views (or is giventhe opportunity to view) a Ford sports car advertisement once every fourdays would be considered to have a relatively low saturation.Conversely, a subscriber who is presented with the same advertisementfour times a night would have a comparatively higher saturation.Saturation would also be increased by the relative placement of theadvertisement in the various program streams that the subscriberwatches. For example, in the foregoing case of four impressions in onenight, the saturation of a subscriber who views these impressions atroughly equal intervals over the night, and perhaps over four differentprogram channels, would be lower than that for the same subscriber whoviews sets or clusters of close-proximity advertisements on the sameprogram channel (e.g., one before, during, and after a single program).There may be benefits or alternatively detriments to the advertiser whenusing such clustering (e.g., the subscriber tends to mentally “tune out”the second and third iterations of the advertisement since they havejust viewed it ten minutes before). Conversely, certain subscribers maytend to ignore advertisements unless they are “beaten to death” withthem via high frequency/repetition.

Irrespective of the benefit/detriment, saturation provides yet one moremetric or parameter that can be controlled by the advertiser and/or MSOin delivery of an advertisement or promotion. This parameter can bereadily incorporated into the aforementioned delivery scheduling methods(and associated APCSM algorithms) so as to either increase or decreasesaturation as desired. For example, a rule might be imposed via theAPCSM that says that the same advertisement should not be run on thesame channel more frequently than once every three hours. Conversely, a“saturation” regime might be used where n different variants of the samebasic advertisement (ensemble) are delivered in a prescribed sequenceand in close temporal proximity of one another on a given programchannel. The ensemble may have a correlated presence, celebrity, ortheme if desired as well (e.g., all Ford Mustang advertisements yet eachwith a different famous sports personality pushing the product).

Saturation can also be dynamically controlled via a feedback process asdescribed elsewhere herein; e.g., such as where a very high initialsaturation rate is reduced after determining that many subscribers tuneaway from the advertisement each time it is repeated (i.e., they aregetting annoyed).

Referring again to FIG. 2 c, delivery is next attempted per step 264. Ifdelivery is unsuccessful for whatever reason (e.g., the targetsubscriber tuned away, the subscriber's CPE is powered down, too large apercentage of subscribers in a group are not tuned to the relevantprogram channel(s), etc.)), the error is handled at step 266. In certainembodiments (as in the embodiment depicted by FIG. 2 c) this errorhandling procedure involves determining a new set of groups for theselected content, where “marked” groups are removed from the set ofeligible groups. Alternatively, a redelivery can be attempted to thesame group, whether shortly thereafter, or at another time. Note,however, that depending on the level of granularity selected and otherfactors, the group constituency at any given time may be quite variable,yet still meet demographic or psychographic requirements. Much like aflowing river for example, the water may still be cold, but it is notthe same water at any different moment. Any such delivery errors notedper step 266 may also be recorded to a flat file or log which can besubsequently accessed by one or more computer processes and/or a humanoperator, such as for subsequent analysis, and correction of anyidentified deficiencies or adaptation by the APCSM.

If the delivery to the group was successful, the delivery is thenrecorded or logged at step 270. In some embodiments, the contentdescriptors are updated so as to indicate delivery related data, suchthe number of times the content has been successfully delivered, thenumber of impressions or subscribers ostensibly reached, the time oflast delivery, etc. Control then resumes at step 252 and the procedurerepeats until the list of advertising or promotional content has finallybeen exhausted.

Referring now to FIG. 3, one embodiment of the method of operating acontent-based network so as to provide dynamically adaptive advertisingor promotion content delivery is described. As will be noted, the methodof FIG. 3 is basically “request-driven”; i.e., the delivery of theadvertising or promotional content is driven by a request from anadvertiser, network, etc. The methodology previously described withrespect to FIGS. 2 a-2 c, in contrast, is more “subscriber-driven” inthat the process is focused on matching and selecting advertising orpromotional content based on one or more identified subscribers (e.g.,those who are watching television at that point in time and haverequested a given program). It will be appreciated, however, that bothof these methods can be used in concert, and may in fact interact withone another, or iterate.

As shown in FIG. 3, the method 300 comprises first receiving a requestfor advertising or promotional insertion (step 302). This mightcomprise, for example, a request directly from an advertiser, from athird party “broker” or intermediary, or from an MSO entity that istasked with handling or pre-processing such requests. These requestsmight come in several different forms, such as e.g., (i) one requestinga particular advertisement be run so as to access a particulardemographic or target audience; (ii) one requesting only that aparticular demographic be accessed, with a plurality of differentadvertisements to choose from in fulfilling the request; (iii) onerequesting that the advertisement be focused within a particulargeographic area; (iv) one requesting that the content of theadvertisement be correlated to programming content with which it iscontemporaneously associated (i.e., given the proper “context”), and soforth. Combinations of the foregoing may also be used. This approachadvantageously gives the MSO appreciable business flexibility; i.e.,they can satisfy a multitude of different types of advertising requests,each being suited to different types of advertisers (or needs).

The target demographic or psychographic is then determined (if notknown) per step 304. For example, this might comprise simply using theadvertiser-provided demographic data. Alternatively, the advertisingcontent provided may be evaluated to identify various features orattributes which correlate to various demographics. For example, in thecase of an advertisement for a new powerful upscale (i.e., relativelycostly) pickup truck, males aged 25-55 in the construction, contracting,farming, etc. fields might be identified as likely demographiccandidates.

Next, per step 306, one or more subscribers within the network andmeeting the target demographic are identified. A previously described,this may constitute evaluation of subscriber profile data retained bythe MSO, evaluation of data regarding various viewing habits (e.g.,historicals), and the like. Note that depending on the level ofgranularity chosen, this identification process may include, forexample: (i) pointedly identifying one or more known individuals withinthe subscriber pool (e.g., John Jones at 123 Main Street, San Diego,Calif.); (ii) anonymously identifying individuals (e.g., based onassociation between a CPE MAC, TUNER ID, etc. hash and the attributes orprofile of that subscriber (irrespective of their actual identity);(iii) identifying groups of subscribers within a localized geographicregion (e.g., zip code) or “network” region (e.g., those in a particularservice group, BSA hub, etc.); (iv) using all or segments of the networkas a whole based on statistical or historical analysis; and so forth.

Lastly, per step 308, the advertising or promotional content isdelivered to the target individuals or population in order to obtain thedesired penetration or number of impressions. This delivery may bescheduled in advance, such as where it is determined that the desireddemographic will be accessed by inserting the advertisement at certainlocations within certain channels at certain times. Alternatively, thedelivery may be dynamically varied and ad hoc, such as where a “target”subscriber with ideal demographics instantiates a VoD session, and theVoD stream is adapted on-the-fly for that subscriber. Similarly, the MSOmight notice that a large percentage of subscribers within the targetdemographic (e.g., viewers within zip code 92127) are presently tuned toa small number of channels based on their tuner activity, and hence theadvertisement can be dynamically scheduled into the next available sloton those channels for at least the service groups serving that zip code.

FIG. 3 a illustrates one variant of the exemplary method of FIG. 3,wherein contextual matching as previously described herein is performed.

Per step 332 of the method 330 of FIG. 3 a, a request for advertising orpromotional insertion is first received. Next, per step 334, a targetdemographic or psychographic for the received request is determined.This may be accomplished by receiving information from the advertiserthemselves (e.g., as to one or more target demographics), oralternatively by analysis by the MSO or a third party of the variousattributes of the advertisement or promotion. For example, one variantof the method scans the advertisement/promotion for metadata or otherdescriptive data, and attempts to generate a demographic orpsychographic profile therefrom. Alternatively, a human operator canwatch the advertisement or promotion, and record their impressionsregarding content, appeal, target audience, etc. Historical orpre-existing demographic or psychographic “profiles” may be used forthis process as well, such as where the advertisement meets all or acertain number of criteria for that profile (e.g., an advertisementabout new high-cost premier titanium golf clubs might be characterizedas appealing to 75% male demographic, 25% female demographic (assumed tobe roughly the ratio of male to female golfers in the subscriber pool)having incomes in excess of $150,000 per year. Other approaches may beused as well.

Next, per step 336, the advertisement or promotion to be inserted ischaracterized. This may be accomplished in a fashion similar to thatpreviously described for determining the demographic associated with theadvertisement or promotion. For example, in one embodiment, the contentcarries metadata with a plurality of descriptive terms (e.g., “golfclubs”; “titanium”; “high-income”, etc.).

Next, per step 338, one or more subscribers within the network meetingthe target demographic are identified. This can be accomplished aspreviously described; e.g., via examination of one or more subscriberdatabases, evaluating historical viewing habits, VoD requests, CPEactivity, products purchased via MSO-enabled services, etc. In manycases, a high-level match to a demographic can be accomplished based oninformation given by the subscriber at sign-up (e.g., a subscriberself-profile), which may indicate for example, age, income bracket,profession, hobbies or interests, marital status, geographic location,and so forth.

Next, one or more program elements matching advertisement/promotioncharacterization of step 338 are identified per step 340. In oneembodiment, this step comprises searching an MSO programming contentdatabase or other repository for programming having correlation to thecontent characterization of the advertisement/promotion to be inserted.For example, the APCSM 401 might search the aforementioned contentdatabase or an impending program lineup for metadata matching the words“golf”, “club” and “wealthy”. This might return the movie “Caddyshack”or “Tin Cup”, or an ABC sports coverage of the Master's Tournament forinstance.

Next, the identified matching program elements are evaluated for theirscheduled broadcast or delivery times/dates per step 342. In oneembodiment, this comprises simply a date and time and duration of theprogram to be broadcast based on an existing program schedule.

Per step 344, the selected advertising or promotional content isdelivered to one or more of the target subscribers along withcontextually matched program content (e.g., during “Caddyshack”) whenone or more target subscribers are actually viewing the content (asdetermined for example by the status of their tuner), or are projectedto view (such as via historical analysis or projections, etc.).

Alternatively, in the on-demand or user-controlled environments, thedelivery will be indeterminate (even total duration may not be known,due to inter alia “trick mode” functions), since it will depend on therequesting subscriber's desires. Hence, the APCSM 401 can be configuredin such cases to route any VoD, nDVR, nPVR, etc. requests for programcontent through its analysis algorithms to perform one or both of thefollowing: (i) evaluate the requested content and match it (e.g., viametadata or the like as previously described) to one or more pendingadvertisement/promotion requests, and if the requesting subscriber meetsthe target demographic, immediately schedule the matchingadvertisement/promotion into the delivery of the on-demand programstream; or (ii) determine if the requested content is on a previouslygenerated “match” list (per step 340 above), and if so, and if therequesting subscriber falls within the selected target demographic (step338), then scheduling the matching advertisement for delivery over theon-demand channel.

Use of Metadata—

As previously indicated, metadata of the type well known in the computerprogramming arts may be utilized in the various embodiments of thepresent invention to allow for even more precise targeting of one ormore subscribers according to their demographic or psychographicprofile, including inter alia logical coupling to program content.Consider the simple example where demographic information about aparticular subscriber indicates that he is male, between 40 and 65, hasa high income and high net worth, and enjoys sports cars. This maycorrelate to the type of demographic that a sports car manufacturerwants to target with its advertising/promotions. Under a prior artapproach, the advertiser might use a Nielsen-like model to correlatethat demographic to a particular television program (e.g., NationalGeographic “Explorer” or the like), and advertise during that program.

Under the exemplary embodiment of the present invention, however, theadvertiser would not need to perform any correlation to a program; theycould simply tell the MSO in essence that “I make and sell sport cars,and I want to hit this particular demographic”. Using this information,the MSO could identify subscribers meeting the target demographic usingthe methods described elsewhere herein, and deliver the advertiser'ssports car advertisement to those subscribers (irrespective of theprogram context in which it was delivered).

However, under the another variant of the invention, the MSO can furtheroptimize the efficacy of this targeting process by evaluating metadataassociated with program content that is broadcast at the proposedchannel/time coordinates to determine if there is tangency orcorrelation to the content of the advertisement (“context matching”).Note that this is markedly different than the prior art (e.g., Nielsen)approach, the latter which says in effect that a given demographic canbe associated with a particular program, irrespective of the program'scontent. For instance, 18-30 year-old females may be known to watchAmerican Idol every Monday night, and the advertiser may wish to sellhair care products to these females, yet hair care products haveliterally no relation to the content of the typical American Idolprogram.

In contrast, the exemplary methods and apparatus described herein may beconfigured to correlate the content of the advertisement and the contentof the contemporaneous programming via metadata, thereby placing theadvertisement or promotion “in context”.

In the previously discussed sports car example, the exemplary APCSMprocess would identify one or more programs with the word “sports car”or similar descriptor in the metadata, and select or prioritizethis/these program(s) for delivery of the sports car-relatedadvertising. In this fashion, there is ostensibly even higherpenetration or efficacy against the target demographic, since the sportscar advertisement will be delivered during programming about sportscars. Irrespective of the subscriber's demographic data that indicatesthat he likes sports cars (assume this data to not be present oravailable in the subscriber's profile for the purposes of this example),it can be presumed that since the subscriber is watching a show aboutsports cars (or which at least contains some elements relating thereto,such as a sports car chase scene), they will have at least some interestin watching a commercial about sports cars.

Additionally, the APCSM process may further fine tune this correlation,such as by determining if the subscriber demographic data: (i)affirmatively lists sports cars as an area of interest or hobby, (ii)the subscriber(s) in question log many hours watching auto racing,sports car-related programs, etc., or (iii) the subscriber indicates viae.g., survey or other such mechanism that he owns one or more sportscars. In the event that any one or more of these exemplary criteria“match” the subscriber(s) being evaluated, there is an even higherprospective correlation or efficacy for the aforementioned sports caradvertisement, thereby weighing in favor of broadcasting thatadvertisement to that subscriber at that time.

At yet a further level of precision, the metadata in the program contentand/or advertising/promotional content can be provided with a timingindex or other reference and further information (e.g., descriptivecodes) that allow for precise placement of the advertising or promotionwithin a program stream for maximum efficacy. In the context of theforegoing sports car example, the program might comprise the SteveMcQueen movie “Bullitt”, wherein an exciting sports car chase sequencebetween McQueen's Ford Mustang and another car takes place at a certainjuncture in the movie. The advertiser might be Ford Motor Co., and theadvertisement relating to their 2008 Ford Mustang. Hence, metadata forthe movie might indicate “sports car; Ford; Mustang, chase” or the like,along with a chronological or timing reference to the program stream(e.g., SI index). The APCSM process of the present invention would readthis metadata, and also read the metadata associated with the proposedadvertisement (e.g., “Ford; Mustang; sales event; convertible” or thelike), and determine according to its established evaluation algorithmor scoring system that there is a high correlation between these twosets of metadata based on “Ford” and “Mustang”. Hence, the APCSM processwould indicate that insertion of the Ford advertisement in the slotimmediately following the car chase scene is optimal, according to apredetermined APCSM rule (e.g., that correlated ads are best insertedimmediately after correlated program stream content).

The net result would be that the subscriber who has just witnessed anexciting sports car chase scene in the movie would see the Ford Mustangadvertisement immediately thereafter (ostensibly while their excitementlevel or “rush” from the scene was still high), thereby potentiallyinducing them to become more interested in the advertisement or takeaction that they would not take otherwise (e.g., impulse buy). Thistechnique can also be used very effectively with ancillary commercechannels or opportunities, as has been demonstrated by programs such asQVC, which allow the subscriber to instantaneously “self gratify”through immediate purchase.

It will further be appreciated that the aforementioned telescopingadvertisements (or other subscriber interactive mechanisms) may beconfigured so that they present contextually relevant information. Here,the term “contextually relevant” refers to inter alia: (i) relevant tothe then-prevailing program content being delivered to the subscriber,and/or (ii) relevant to the advertising or promotion(s) being presentedat that time. See, e.g., co-owned and co-pending U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 11/198,620 entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONTEXT-SPECIFICCONTENT DELIVERY” filed Aug. 4, 2005, and incorporated herein byreference in its entirety, for exemplary methods and apparatus by whichthis functionality may be accomplished. One variant of the presentinvention selects the content of interactive links included with theadvertisements or elements that can be telescoped by the subscriber. Forinstance, in the case of a telescoping window or advertisement for theFord Mustang sports car, the APCSM (or the local CPE or client processthereof, if used) may determine various context elements from themetadata associated with the advertisement (e.g., “Ford”, “Mustang”,“Sale”), and select two or three interactive links or “pointers” toitems of interest or particular relevance. Hence, the aforementionedFord advertisement might, for example include a telescoping window wherethe subscriber could obtain more information on the 2008 Mustang,contact a dealer, locate local Ford dealers that stock the Mustang andwhich are currently running a sale, set up a test drive, etc. Dealersmight also use this information to dynamically create new salesopportunities; e.g., by actually bringing a 2008 Mustang demo to thesubscriber's residence or the like for a test drive on short notice soas to capitalize on the “impulse buy” tendencies of the subscribers.

Additionally, the selection of the telescoping Ford Mustangadvertisement itself can be based on the subscriberdemographics/psychographics, and/or the context of the program contentassociated with the advertisement (e.g., Bullitt) as previouslydescribed.

At yet a greater level of precision, the advertisement could becontextually adapted or coupled to the content. For example, Ford mightprovide the MSO in the foregoing illustration with multiple versions ofMustang advertisements, including one that includes Steve McQueen'slikeness, and perhaps a short clip of the chase scene in Bullitt, and/orsome catchy copy such as “Want to put a little excitement in yourmorning commute? Buy a 2008 Ford Mustang”. The APCSM process would beable to use unique metadata associated with each version (e.g., theaforementioned “Bullitt” version including metadata such as “Bullitt” or“McQueen”) to select the version of the advertisement that is mosthighly correlated with the program content. These multiple versions maybe cached in the MSO network, such as using a storage device withpre-encoded versions readily accessible to an advertising splicer, andhence rapidly selected and inserted, effectively seamless to the viewingsubscriber(s).

Since the broadcast program lineup is effectively fixed as a function oftime in most networks, the MSO (via the APCSM process) canopportunistically identify instances where insertion of a givenadvertiser's advertising or promotional content is optimal for reachingthe target demographic (e.g., so as to achieve a desired number ofimpressions). This also provides the MSO with a great deal ofoperational flexibility, since the advertiser is not telling the MSOwhere and when to run a given advertisement, but rather only the desiredresult. Such “results-driven” advertising allows the MSO to literallyrevise all or parts of its advertising schedule dynamically based oninter alia, analysis performed by the APCSM.

In another aspect of the invention, a personalized (or substantiallypersonalized) advertising or promotion “stream” is utilized forachieving the desired level of demographic/psychographic penetration.For instance, in one variant, the advertising or promotion streamcomprises a selectively accessible source (e.g., advertising server)within or outside the MSO network that can be accessed to provide anadvertising playlist or sequence for one or more users within the targetdemographic or psychographic. In a simple implementation, the source(e.g., advertising server) is used in conjunction with a VoD deliveryparadigm such that when a prescribed user within the demographic selectsor requests a VoD session, the APCSM (or even VoD SRM) configures thesession such that any advertisements or promotions that are spliced intothe content stream are taken from the advertising server, the latterwhich is configured to store and retrieve an advertising/promotionalplaylist that is particularly relevant to that subscriber's demographicor psychographic. In one variant, the hashed tuner variable or MACaddress for the subscriber's CPE is stored in a correlation databasewithin the advertising server (or associated asset, such as an MSOsubscriber database). The correlation database associates eachparticular user or groups of users with an existing (or evenspontaneously generated) playlist. For instance, one embodiment uses thesubscriber's unique identity information (e.g., tuner or MAC hash) torecall a predetermined playlist or sequence for that subscriber, whichmay consist of only one advertisement in some cases. The recalledplaylist is then implemented by splicing the appropriate advertisingcontent into the VoD stream at the appropriate location(s), using e.g.,splicing techniques described elsewhere herein.

Alternatively, the aforementioned hash or other descriptive informationcan be used to access a demographic profile associated with thatsubscriber, which is then processed by a computer program (e.g., APCSM)so as to identify corresponding advertisements, such as via searchingfor metadata matches as previously described. This approach has theadvantage of generating the playlist at time of delivery (versus perhapshours, days, or weeks in advance), thereby avoiding stagnation orobsolescence or one or more advertisements on the playlist.

Myriad other approaches for generating a relevant playlist will beappreciated by those of ordinary skill given the present disclosure.

In another variant, a broadcast delivery paradigm (e.g., BSA) is used,and the playlist may be selected based on one or a plurality ofsubscribers that may fall within the target demographic. For instance,at a high level of granularity, it may be known that most or at least asignificant fraction of the subscribers in a particular service groupfall within a particular demographic (e.g., males living in zip code92131). Hence, an advertisement or playlist of advertisements directedat this demographic can be inserted into the broadcast streams deliveredto that service group, under the presumption that at any given time, thefraction of subscribers watching programming on those channels willgenerally correlate to that of the larger population (i.e., allsubscribers in that service group).

At a finer level of granularity, individual subscribers within theservice group can be targeted, such as by detecting their tuner activity(e.g., MAC address in an upstream switching or channel change request,etc.), their program streams configured to obtain the advertising fromthe aforementioned personalized source at relevant points within thebroadcast program stream. It is really of little concern whether othersubscribers not within the demographic are also tuned to the sameprogram channel(s) as the one or more subscribers of interest within thedemographic; since the exemplary business model described herein ispredicated upon number of impressions within the demographic, there isno real penalty for “misses” (i.e., impressions by viewers outside ofthe target demographic), so long as the requisite penetration within thedemographic occurs. Of course, there may be competing interests from thestandpoint that the advertising slots within a given program channel maybe more effectively used by another advertisement that more closely mapsonto the then-existing statistics of the viewing subscribers, such aswhere the majority of current viewers are female in the foregoingexample. However, the relative cost/benefit of various options can beweighed and evaluated using the APCSM process (or NOC process)referenced elsewhere herein, and a selection made.

It will be appreciated that the foregoing exemplary implementationsusing a “personalized advertising stream” share the common feature ofbeing optionally decoupled from the program content with which theadvertising or promotions are delivered. For instance, in one variant,the content of the advertisement or promotion placed on the playlist fora subscriber or group is completely decoupled from the context of theprogram content, being selected rather based solely on the demographicand/or psychographic of the relevant subscriber(s). Alternatively, theadvertisements on the playlist can be selected so as to further (or evenonly) satisfy a contextual correlation between the advertisement andprogram content as described elsewhere herein.

Control and Tracking of Impressions—

As described elsewhere herein, the network operator utilizing variousembodiments of the present invention can also optionally control andtrack the type of viewer experience or impression for a givenadvertisement. For example, one type of impression would be viewing anadvertisement that is broadcast mid-way through the correspondingcontent program. Another type of impression would be viewing anadvertisement at the beginning or end of the program. Yet another typeof impression might relate to use of one of a plurality of variants ofthe same advertisement (e.g., same advertiser, product and/or service,but different setting or genre). Still another type of impression mightcomprise one of a plurality of durations of the advertisement (e.g., 5-or 10-second “shortie” versus a full 30-second advertisement). As yetanother option, the encoding or other media-related parameter may bevaried across types of impressions (e.g., HD versus SD).

The MSO can further optionally track the behavior of one or more viewersduring the broadcast of the advertisement. For example, in one variant,the interaction of the viewer with their CPE can be used to assessdegree of penetration. In the case of so-called “telescoping”advertisements or promotions (see, e.g., co-owned and co-pending U.S.patent application Ser. No. 10/662,776 entitled “System and Method forAdvertisement Delivery within a Video Time Shifting Architecture” filedSep. 15, 2003, incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, for oneexemplary embodiment thereof), subscribers who telescope are assumed tohave at least some level of interest in the product or serviceadvertised, therefore indicating some level of success or efficacy inthe advertisement. Additional factors can be used to more accuratelydivine the level of subscriber interest, such as e.g., follow-onrequests for information on the subject matter of the advertisement,persistence of the telescoped window or GUI (i.e., how long they keep itopen or interact with it), repeat telescopes or interactions (therebyostensibly indicating a higher level of interest, much as when anindividual repeatedly views the same pictures of something or particularinterest to them), and so forth.

Similarly, if the viewer changes channels or pauses (e.g., VoD or nDVR)in the middle of the advertisement, this is perceived by the operator(and hence advertiser ultimately) to indicate affirmatively that theviewer is not interested in the advertised or promoted product orservice.

This underscores another salient advantage of the invention; i.e., theability (if desired) to utilize feedback or indirect informationrelating to user impressions that varies in confidence level, and theability of the MSO and/or advertiser to make use of this information.Hence, for example, an affirmative channel switch during anadvertisement is considered a reliable and high-confidence indication ofno interest by that viewer in the material broadcast. The converse,however, is much lower confidence; i.e., that fact that the viewer didnot switch the channel during the advertisement does not necessarilymean that the viewer is interested; they may have simply beendistracted, ambivalent, or too lazy to pick up the remote and change it.

As will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill, other indicia of auser actually viewing an advertisement (impression) versus merely beingtuned to it and having no cognizance thereof, may be utilized consistentwith the invention, such as e.g., the interactive client applicationdiscussed subsequently herein.

Moreover, various indicia of “negative” viewing may be used toaffirmatively determine that the subscriber is not interested in, and/orhas not had a valid impression, a particular advertisement may be usedconsistent with the invention. For example, the MSO might monitor thestatus of the CPE 106 during the advertisement or promotion for, interalia, its power state (on or off), existence of any logged hardware orsoftware errors that would preclude viewing, the power state of aconnected monitor, the absence of any tuning events for a protractedperiod of time (despite the CPE being powered up), etc. If the CPEand/or monitor are off, for example, it is a strong indicator that theadvertisement was not viewed.

In one variant of the invention, the MSO installs a small clientapplication on the CPE 106 of participating subscribers which thesubscriber agrees to interact with during viewing. In one embodiment,this application generates an unobtrusive on-screen display that asksthe subscriber questions regarding what they are viewing or have viewed.In another embodiment, the subscriber merely uses the client applicationto provide the MSO his/her viewing status (e.g., “Away from my TV” or“Offline”, akin to well known instant messaging (IM) applications nowubiquitous on personal computers). For example, the user may merely pusha button on their remote to select the “Away” or other option asapplicable. The MSO can then know with greater confidence whichadvertisements or promotions the subscriber has actually viewed (or atleast which ones they have not viewed).

It will also be appreciated that the aforementioned status orimpression-related indicia may be obtained on a sampling basis from thetarget demographic, and extrapolated. For instance, where the targetdemographic comprises 1,000 subscribers, yet only 100 have opted-in forthe MSO program to collect data on their viewing habits and personaldemography, the results obtained from these 100 participants can be atleast somewhat reliably extrapolated to estimate the behavior of the1,000 subscriber pool as a whole, assuming that the 100 participants areat least somewhat normally distributed within the larger statisticalpopulation. For example, if 75 of the 100 participants tune away duringa given advertisement, it is a pretty safe bet that the advertisementhad low efficacy for that demographic as a whole (or the wrongdemographic has been picked). Statistically, of course, it is possiblethat the aforementioned 75 were out on one end of the probabilitydistribution (e.g., 3σ), and represent a departure from the overallbehavior of the group of 1,000; however such statistical distributioncan be taken into account in the reliability or confidence of the data.For instance, if the selected subset of the population is 100 of 1000,this data would be given a lower confidence rating than data obtainedfrom 300 of 1000 subscribers.

The apparatus and methods of the present invention further allow forvarious types of business models (described subsequently herein), aswell as having significant implications for the effectiveness of theadvertising or promotion (“Quality of Efficacy”, or QoE). Specifically,the ability to accurately target demographics or psychographics withinthe MSO subscriber pool allows the MSO to provide at least someassurances regarding efficacy. In one variant, the degree of efficacy isdetermined indirectly by evaluating both the number of impressions andthe correlation between the advertisement and the viewing subscribers.At a very high level of granularity, the MSO might provide informationto the advertiser indicating the number of impressions within the targetdemographic that has been achieved (e.g., the MSO provided 1,000impressions within 24 hours within the target 18-30 year-old femaledemographic). As more specificity is added to the target demographicprofile (e.g., 18-30 year-old female college students living in zip code92101 with incomes between $20,000 and $30,000/yr.), the degree ofviewer-to-advertisement correlation can be better assessed. Forinstance, of the aforementioned 1,000 impressions, 50 may have met allof the demographic elements (100% correlation), 150 met four of the fivecriteria (80% correlation), 300 met three of the five criteria, 700 mettwo of the five criteria, and so forth. This type of information can beused by the MSO and/or advertiser as a indirect metric of efficacy orpenetration. Other types of information can included, such as forexample: (i) how many of those impressions occurred at various pointsrelative to a given program (e.g., how many were “midstream” in a givenprogram, regardless of what that program was), (ii) what program(s) wereeach “impression” associated with; (iii) how many occurred in prime-timeor other periods of interest; and so forth. Hence, the MSO can maintaindetailed statistics in an advertising or similar database regarding theactual implementation of each different advertisement, and provide thisinformation (at any level of specificity or according to any “slice” ofthe data) to the advertiser so that they may gauge the effectiveness oftheir advertising. They may even sell this information to third partiesor other advertisers, in effect giving the latter a direct window intothe habits and demography of cable or satellite network subscribers.

Where a commerce channel is also accessible, more “direct” effectivenessmeasures such as number of advertised widgets sold over the Internetafter the advertisement, number of people coming into a car dealershipsaying the saw the advertisement, etc. can also be melded with theindirect information to form a more complete picture for the advertiseror promoter.

It will be recognized that the foregoing “feedback” data can also beused by the MSO and/or advertiser for dynamic adjustments to theprescribed advertising implementation scheme. For instance, in oneembodiment, the aforementioned detailed correlation data (i.e., 50 metall of the demographic elements (100% correlation), 150 met four of thefive criteria (80% correlation), 300 met three of the five criteria, andso forth) would be used as a basis of changing one or more targeting oroperational parameters within the network during the “run” of a givenadvertisement. The aforementioned correlation numbers for exampleindicate that there was fairly poor correlation to the demographic, inthat only 50 of 1,000 impressions (5%) met all demographic requirementsof the advertiser. As data is obtained during the broadcast schedule ofthe advertisement (say, over the space of a day or week) indicating sucha poor correlation, the MSO might alter its placement strategy, such asby shifting the delivery schedule earlier in the evening on a Fridaynight before the target college students go out to parties, clubs,concerts, etc. The adjustments can be directly coupled to thestatistics; e.g., if the demographic factor that is not being met is theincome level, then maybe the MSO needs to shift the advertisementdelivery into zip codes with higher or lower per-household income, asapplicable. These types of adjustments can be performed dynamically bythe APCSM process, under MSO manual control, or both.

Moreover, as demographics of one or more users changes with time (e.g.,18-30 year old females tune away), the advertising content can bechanged accordingly. Advantageously, these changes need not be atprogram boundaries, as in many prior art approaches. Consider forexample the case where most or all CPE within a service group tuned toprogram channel X (airing American Idol at that time) are 18-30 year oldfemales. Effective penetration or “impressions” would likely occur foran advertiser by airing their advertisement targeted at this demographicduring that period. However, conventional program-based advertisingmight indicate that if American Idol were followed by an episode of“24”, many or most of those 18-30 year old females would tune away,thereby causing the prospective advertiser (via the MSO) to not play itsadvertisements during the “24” slot. Yet, if the actual tuning data andsubscriber profile data indicate that for whatever reason 18-30 year oldfemales are continuing to watch 24, the MSO utilizing the APCSM 401 ofthe present invention in their network could dynamically alter theadvertising lineup (e.g., move a scheduled advertisement for a differentdemographic, such as 45-60 year old males, to another slot somewhereelse, and instead insert an advertisement for the 18-30 year old femaledemographic). Simply stated, one configuration of the present inventionallows for dynamic placement of advertisements based on real-timefeedback and network conditions, as opposed to a predeterminedprojection of who will be on what channel and when.

Multiple and Alternate Delivery Paradigms—

Additionally, it will be recognized that the methods and apparatusdisclosed herein may be applied to video-on-demand (VoD) and network DVR(nDVR) or personal video recorder (PVR) delivery paradigms. As is wellknown, these delivery paradigms provide for effectively individualizedsubscriber content delivery which can be initiated (and controlled) bythat individual at any time they wish. For example, the nDVRarchitecture allows consumers of video content to customize theirviewing experience, including the ability to pause live broadcasttelevision, restart or rewind shows currently in progress, fast forwardand rewind prerecorded programs and record multiple programssimultaneously.

These individualized delivery paradigms provide new opportunities forthe delivery of advertisements, such as targeted advertisementsdelivered with on-demand video assets, as well as playback ofprerecorded programs with additional or replacement advertising throughthe functionality that the VoD/nDVR/nPVR architecture provides.

For example, in the context of the present invention, since theindividual subscriber requesting e.g. a VoD session is known (whetheractually or by their anonymous identification information such as ahash), their associated demographic or psychographic may also be known,and hence an advertiser seeking to access that demographic can bevirtually assured a viable impression by that subscriber (in effect acaptive audience of one). Similarly, the nDVR user who requests replayof a previously broadcast from the network is known (as is theirdemographic), and targeted advertising can be inserted in such a case aswell.

Moreover, the insertion of targeted advertising or promotional contentcan be orchestrated across multiple delivery paradigms in order toachieve the desired degree of penetration or “impressions”. For example,an advertisement may be spliced into certain broadcast program streams(such as via the aforementioned BSA infrastructure), a correspondingadvertisement spliced into a VoD session (e.g., before the featurestarts), and another corresponding advertisement spliced into an IPstream delivered over an in-band or DOCSIS downstream channel (e.g.,IPTV), such as the contextually related links or advertisementsdescribed in co-owned and co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/198,620 entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONTEXT-SPECIFIC CONTENTDELIVERY” filed Aug. 4, 2005, incorporated herein by reference.Audio-only versions may also be delivered over, e.g., VoIP.

Session-over-cellular channels such as those described in co-owned andco-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/258,229 entitled “METHODAND APPARATUS FOR ON-DEMAND CONTENT TRANSMISSION AND CONTROL OVERNETWORKS” filed Oct. 24, 2005, incorporated herein by reference, mayalso be utilized. For example, as described in the foregoingapplication, a network subscriber might utilize their cellular phone torequest VoD-over-cellular or broadcast-over-cellular content delivery;e.g., an instructional video on how to change the flat tire on theirJaguar XJ8. Upon receiving this request, the MSO might route it to theAPCSM process for analysis, and based on the APCSM determining that itis an automotive-related and tire-related video request, dynamicallysplice in a short advertisement for local tire stores or repairservices.

The foregoing heterogeneous delivery modes may also provide verydifferent correlation or impression rates, thereby causing adjustment bythe MSO as previously described. For instance, a given subscriber mightbe willing to sit through a Ford car advertisement in their living room,but not on their PC or cellular phone.

Moreover, the format and encoding (and even in some cases the contentitself) must be selected so as to be appropriate for the selecteddelivery mode. For instance, the MSO could not deliver a high-bandwidthHD-encoded version of a commercial to a cellular subscriber with only alimited display environment and processing (as well as communicationbandwidth). Hence, the present invention contemplates the use ofmultiple formats and encodings of advertisements and promotions fromwhich the MSO can select (e.g., HD full-length version, H.264 version,“micro” shortie version for handhelds, etc.).

Targeted advertising or promotion may also occur incidentally or in anad hoc fashion, or as part of other communications; e.g., delayedcontent delivery notifications (see co-owned and co-pending U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/706,620 entitled “METHODS AND APPARATUS FORCONTENT DELIVERY NOTIFICATION AND MANAGEMENT” filed Feb. 14, 2007,incorporated herein by reference.), on-screen displays associated withdownload and recording functions (see co-owned and co-pending U.S.patent application Ser. No. 11/080,693 entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUSFOR NETWORK CONTENT DOWNLOAD AND RECORDING” filed Mar. 14, 2005,incorporated herein by reference), and the like.

Hence, the present invention advantageously provides a great degree offlexibility in not only the delivery mode, but also the delivery time,delivery format/encoding, the targeted subscriber(s), and the contextualcorrelation between the delivered advertising or promotional content andthe primary content (e.g., movie, program, etc.) with which ittemporally corresponds.

In another aspect of the present invention, advertising or promotionalcontent can be statically or dynamically inserted into content that isdelivered to remote network nodes (e.g., “slung” to a remote subscriberlocation when that subscriber is not at their premises). See, e.g.,co-pending and co-owned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/441,476entitled “SECONDARY CONTENT INSERTION APPARATUS AND METHODS” filed May24, 2006, and incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, whichdescribes exemplary methods and apparatus for delivering content to asecondary location via a personal content server or PCS (includingselective substitution of advertising or promotional content moregermane to the secondary location and/or delivery time). Hence, in oneembodiment, the APCSM 401 described herein may communicate with theaforementioned PCS to select advertising/promotional content that isoptimized for such instances.

Advertising and Promotional Content Selection Module (APCSM)—

FIG. 4 illustrates one exemplary network configuration comprising amodified architecture in accordance with one embodiment of the presentinvention. In this embodiment, the headend 150 has been modified toinclude an Advertising and Promotional Content Selection Module (APCSM)401 used to implement various of the functions described herein. Theexemplary APCSM 401 comprises additional modules adapted to, inter alia,facilitate advertising or promotional content identification andassignment based on received information about one or more groups ofcontent consumers, as previously described with respect to FIGS. 2-3 aherein.

The exemplary APCSM 401 of FIG. 4 comprises a subscriber informationrepository or database (SID) 402, an information analysis module (IAM)404, and a content assignment module (CAM) 406, as shown. These threemodules interact with one another as described below in order to providethe requisite targeted delivery functionality.

Initially, personal information is collected about one or more networkusers. In some variants, this information may include one of, orcombinations of, the following characteristics: name, address, age,race, ethnicity, gender, anatomical dimensions (height, weight, etc.),physical/mental conditions, marital status, family size, number ofdependents, sexual orientation, religious persuasion, politicalaffiliation, net worth, annual income, types of automobiles owned,number of automobiles owned, country of citizenship, languages spoken,occupation, hobbies, and personal preferences. Myriad otherinformational characteristics may also be collected without departingfrom the scope of the present invention.

In some embodiments, at least a portion of this information isself-reported by the consumer. For example, the information might betaken from a questionnaire or a form filled out on-line (e.g., at adesignated website), via an on-screen interactive display after theuser's cable or satellite service is established, via mail (or e-mail),or at the MSO's office, upon a service activation request and/orrenewal. Hand-held wireless devices such as PDAs or the like may also beused, allowing the user to fill out the questionnaire easily using e.g.,a touch-screen display. In one such variant, a touch-interactive GUI(such as that on the exemplary Apple iPhone™) is used to present theuser with a sequence of questions to which they may select from two ormore answer options. Users may also be offered incentives or otherconsideration for participating.

From a user participation perspective, it is also noted that the promiseof enhanced services delivered to the subscriber may be used as anincentive to participate. For example, a subscriber knowing that thetypes and content of advertisements and promotions they view will bemuch more closely tailored to their particular needs or interests willin many cases be willing to expend the extra effort needed to fill outthe survey (and perhaps maintain and update it periodically over time).Financial or other such incentives may be offered as well, such as wherethe subscriber receives an X % discount on their monthly bill for eachmonth that they participate.

Similarly, the present invention contemplates that subscribers may givena choice as to whether to “opt-in” or “opt-out” of the informationcollection process in general. In one variant, the user can controlaccess to various types of information such that only the informationthat the user has affirmatively designated is eligible for collectionand/or analysis. For example, a given user may grant access toinformation about his historical viewing patterns (such as mostfrequently requested programs), but deny access to more personalinformation (such as age, income, and occupation).

As described elsewhere herein, certain embodiments of the invention alsocompletely insulate the user's actual identity so as to maintainprivacy, such as via a cryptographic hash or other security mechanism,limits on the type and specificity of information collected and stored,or both.

The collected information is then input into a storage medium comprisedwithin a user information repository 402 such as a RAID-protecteddatabase, which is adapted to organize and store the informationaccordingly in corresponding data structures (e.g., files).

Alternatively, the gathering of information about the subscriber may becompletely passive (i.e., no affirmative user participation orsubmission of information required), such as where viewer tuning habits,upstream requests (e.g., PPV or VoD), service calls, etc. are passivelyanalyzed. This passive collection and evaluation may or may not be withsubscriber permission, depending on e.g., the business and legalconsiderations relating to collection of such data, and/or thesubscriber “opting into” the program.

In some embodiments, at least a portion of the subscriber-relatedinformation (e.g., tuning activity, etc.) is passively obtained by oneor more automated processes (algorithms) within the APCSM 401. Theseautomated processes may be resident locally (for example, at the CPE 106or service area node 414), or alternatively, the processes may beresident at a remote location (for example, at the distribution node 412or cable headend 150).

Subscriber-related information can also be passively estimated orextrapolated as described elsewhere herein. For example, if the consumerhas viewed one or more French language channels for more than ten hoursduring a given week, an automated process may use this information topredict that the consumer can speak French, is a Francophile, and/or isof French descent. Upon obtaining or extrapolating this information, theAPCSM 401 facilitates updating that subscriber's entry in the userinformation repository 402 accordingly.

Optionally, a consumer's historical viewing patterns may be recorded inthe user information repository 402 as well. For example, certaininformation collected may indicate that the consumer in question: (i)watches the Golf Channel every week for at least three hours, (ii)changes channels on average three times every ten minutes, (iii) hasnever requested content on Sunday evenings for the last eight months,(iv) mostly frequently requests channels 25, 45, and 48, and (v) mostfrequently requests “Friends” and “The Daily Show.” This information canbe subsequently synthesized with the user's self-reported and estimatedpersonal characteristics in order to generate a profile within thedatabase 402 which uniquely describes that consumer. This report can berendered in both computer- and human-accessible form (e.g., XML) so asto enhance its utility.

In some embodiments, at least a portion of the user information whichcould be used to personally identify a particular content consumer isfirst hashed, scrambled, or otherwise enciphered, as previouslydescribed with respect to FIGS. 2-2 c herein. In this manner, subscriberprivacy is effectively maintained if desired. In other embodiments, atleast a portion of the user information which could be used topersonally identify a particular content consumer is simply nottransmitted or received in the first instance. Advantageously, thisprovides additional privacy protection and requires no additional logicfor resident hashing, scrambling, or enciphering processes.

In another embodiment, the consumer's historical viewing patterns arestored locally on the CPE 106 (such as via a client application runningthereon), and transmitted to the headend via OOB frequencies, over aDOCSIS channel, etc. In some embodiments, raw data received from the CPEis subsequently abstracted or generalized, and this generalized data isstored in the user information repository 402 in addition to (or in lieuof) the raw data itself. For example, the raw data from a given consumerviewing pattern during a given week n may indicate that the consumerwatched the Disney channel on Monday-Friday from 3:00-6:00, and onSaturday and Sunday from 10:00-8:00, whereas the generalized orabstracted data may merely indicate: “Week n, Disney, 35 hrs.” Myriadother forms of abstraction and generalization are also possible inaccordance with the scope of the present invention.

Once the foregoing information has been successfully collected orotherwise provided, the user information repository 402 will thencontain one or more of: (i) the self-reported personal or demographiccharacteristics of one or more content consumers, (ii) any estimated orextrapolated personal characteristics of those consumers, and/or (iii)the historical viewing patterns of those consumers. In this manner,relevant data can be subsequently extracted for analysis and subsequentdata generation, such as by the information analysis module 404.

In one embodiment, the information analysis module 404 of the APCSM 401retrieves data from the user information repository 402, analyzes theretrieved data, and generates an output based at least in part on thisanalysis. This output can be streamed directly to the requesting moduleand/or cached in a storage medium in order to expeditiously servicesubsequent requests of a similar nature. In some variants, the cache isfirst accessed in order to determine whether a similar request hasalready been serviced in a relatively recent time period. This timeperiod can be adjusted by an operator in accordance with a one variantof the present invention. In this manner, repetitive processingassociated with data parsing can be eliminated or reduced substantially,thereby increasing overall system performance.

In one embodiment, a request received by the information analysis module404 is accompanied by certain input arguments or parameters, which areused to indicate the type of operation requested. For example, theinformation analysis module 404 may receive a request to determine howmany consumers have watched ESPN for more than fifteen hours in the lastthree days. Alternatively, the request may consist of determining theset of content consumers in a given service area or zip code who areolder than 55 years of age. As yet another example, the request mayconsist of determining the percentage of content consumers currentlyrequesting content from the Home Shopping Network and that have aself-reported household income of less than $35,000/yr. The aboveexamples are merely illustrative in nature; myriad other requests arealso possible in accordance with the scope of the present invention.

The information analysis module 404 then retrieves the data necessary tofacilitate servicing the request from the user information repository402. As mentioned above, the data stored in the user informationrepository 402 can be raw data, generalized or abstracted data,metadata, or any other form useful to the analysis module 404.

In some embodiments, the information analysis module 404 then parses thedata in order to extract relevant information. In one variant, theinformation's relevancy is governed by the input arguments or parameterspassed to the information analysis module 404 along with the request. Inanother variant, the information's relevancy has already been specified,and is stored with the data. In still other variants, a combination ofinput parameters and specified relevancy indicators are used.

In alternative embodiments, a database is queried in order to service agiven request. In a preferred embodiment, a relational database isutilized, enabling specialized queries to be conducted by selection,projection, and join operations specified by an intermediary interfacelanguage. In many cases, these relational database operations provideefficiency increases vis-à-vis the data parsing method described above.

After the relevant data is extracted, the information analysis module404 subsequently generates an output based upon this data. Per certainembodiments of the present invention, this output may be streameddirectly to the requesting module and/or cached to a storage medium. Theoutput data may be used as input to subsequent analysis algorithmsassociated with the information analysis module 404. For example, arequest to determine which consumers are currently requesting contentfrom the Home Shopping Network and who have a self-reported householdincome of less than $35,000/yr might be handled in the following manner:

-   -   a) generate a list of those users who are currently requesting        content from the home shopping network,    -   b) save this output as list #1 in the associated storage medium,    -   c) generate a list of those users who have a household income of        less than $35,000/yr,    -   d) save this output as list #2 in the storage medium,    -   e) generate a list of consumers who appear in both list #1, and        list #2 (using both list #1 and list #2 as inputs), and    -   f) f) save this output as list #3.

Note that the output generated by the information analysis module 404can take on any number of forms in accordance with the presentinvention. For example, the contents of the output may comprise numbers(real or imaginary), percentages, numeric totals, group lists, memberlists, prices, schedules, tables, projections, data aggregations,concatenations of data, and any combination thereof. They may alsocomprise fuzzy logic, Bayesian, Dempster-Shafer, or Boolean variables orlogical relationships as desired. Myriad other possibilities are alsocontemplated.

FIG. 4 a illustrates one network configuration comprising modifieddistribution node architecture in accordance with another embodiment ofthe present invention. Note that the embodiment depicted by FIG. 4 a issimilar to the embodiment depicted by FIG. 4, except that the APCSM 401and its modules (namely, the user information repository 402, theinformation analysis module 404, and the content assignment module 406)are disposed within one or more distribution nodes 412, as opposed tothe headend 150. As FIG. 4 a indicates, this modular functionality maybe comprised within a single distribution node 412 resident within acorresponding distribution network. In alternative embodiments, thefunctionality may be spread across multiple distribution nodes 412resident in the same distribution network.

Relocating the aforementioned APCSM modules closer to the CPE 106 as inFIG. 4 a advantageously preserves computational resources of the headend150 by allowing certain localized content to be sourced directly from anode situated more locally to the target CPE 106. This also ostensiblyfrees up the transmission path between the source distribution node 412and the headend 150 (including all distribution nodes located upstreamfrom the source distribution node 412), thus preserving overall networkbandwidth.

FIG. 5 illustrates one embodiment of the information analysis module 404as depicted in FIG. 4. The information analysis module 404 comprises aIAM request handler 506, a data handler 510, and optionally, a userinterface 504. According to one embodiment, the information analysismodule 404 is adapted to analyze user information in order to servicerequests received from requesting network modules.

According to the embodiment depicted by FIG. 5, the IAM request handler506 is adapted to receive and service requests for user information.These requests may be generated according to substantially automatedprocesses (for example, as by a content assignment module 406), or theserequests may be input manually (for example, as by a human operatorproviding input to connected user interface 504). Depending on the typesof requests received by the request handler 506, multiple operations maybe required, such as a request to determine which consumers are single,presently under the age of 30, and who have a self-reported income ofmore than $40,000/yr. In many embodiments, input arguments are used inorder to designate the requested parameters and operations.

In one embodiment, a data cache 514 is accessed by the IAM requesthandler 506 in order to retrieve the results of recently servicedrequests. This data cache 514 may comprise any combination of volatileand/or non-volatile storage or memory. If the serviced request isrelatively recent and located within the data cache 514, the IAM requesthandler can service the request merely by retrieving the stored outputcorresponding to the previous request. In this manner, computationalresources are preserved as duplicative processing is averted.Speculative pre-fetch type approaches for caching data within the cache514 can be used as well, such as for example where the APCSM logicestimates or speculates that the demand for a particular type ofinformation (or particular subscriber's or group's information) may behigh due to historical data, anecdotal data or signals, etc.

If the requested output does not appear in the data cache 514, or if adata cache is not used, the IAM request handler 506 transmits thegenerated request 508 to the data handler 510. According to a preferredembodiment, the data handler 510 is adapted to request data necessary toservice the request from the user information repository 402, analyzethis data, and generate one or more outputs corresponding to thegenerated request 508.

In one embodiment, the data handler 510 comprises a data request module512, a data parser 515, a data analyzer 517, and a data outputgeneration module 518. In those variants where a relational database isqueried in order to retrieve the requested data, the data analyzer 517and/or the data parser 515 can be omitted.

In the embodiment depicted by FIG. 5, the data request module 512 isadapted to determine the data necessary to service the generated request508, and to request such data from the user information repository 402or other data source (e.g., outside of the APCSM 401). Upon receivingthis data, the data is transmitted to the data parser 515 and analyzer517 modules.

In one embodiment, the data parser 515 scans through one or more linesof a flat file in order to highlight or extract out relevantinformation. For example, given an input list of all user records storedwithin the user information repository 402, the data parser 515 mayselect only those entries in the record which indicate that the consumeris female. In some embodiments, the analyzer 517 controls the dataparser 515 by providing it with a set of commands to be performed withrespect to a given data set. For example, the analyzer 517 may requestthat the data parser 514 parse its output list of female consumers inorder to determine which entries indicate that this consumer ispresently serviced in a certain geographic area.

In certain embodiments, the analyzer 517 is further adapted to generatestatistical data based on data it receives from the data parser 515and/or from the data request module 512. For example, the statisticaldata generated by the analyzer 517 may indicate that 30% of femaleconsumers in the San Diego area have watched over five hours of MTVduring the last week, 50% have self-reported annual incomes of over$42,000/yr, and 43% are married. Note that in one embodiment, thedefault group analyzed (if not otherwise specified by the generatedrequest 508) can be specified; e.g., as the entire group of contentconsumers presently requesting content over the cable network, or thosewithin a prescribed service group, zip code, etc.

The data corresponding to the generated request 508 is then handled bythe data output generation module 518. In a preferred embodiment, thedata output generation module 518 receives an output from the analyzer517, formats the output accordingly, and then routes the formattedoutput to the data cache 514 and/or IAM request handler 506. Thisrouting may be necessary, for example, in embodiments where multiple IAMrequest handlers 506 are used. Finally, upon receiving the output fromthe data output generation module 518, the IAM request handler 506forwards the output to the requesting module or process accordingly.

FIG. 6 illustrates one exemplary implementation of the contentassignment module 406 as illustrated in FIG. 4; it will be appreciatedthat this configuration is merely illustrative of the broader principlesof the invention, and other configurations may be used with equalsuccess.

The exemplary content assignment module (CAM) 406 of FIG. 6 comprises ascheduler 602, a content information module 606, a user interface 610, agroup selection module 614, a content selection module 622, and acontent assignment manager 628.

In one embodiment, the scheduler 602 comprises a schedule of advertisingor promotional content intended for broadcast over a cable network. Forexample, the schedule might indicate an SUV advertisement, followed by adiamond ring advertisement, followed by an advertisement for a programsoon airing on Discovery Channel. In one mode of operation, the contentassignment module 406 is adapted to select an appropriate group (i.e.,one or more subscribers) for receiving this advertising or promotionalcontent. Thus, the scheduler sends out a request for a group 604corresponding to a certain referenced content element, stream orensemble. In a preferred embodiment, this request comprises a uniqueidentifier to the content stream (such as a sequence of alphanumericcharacters which uniquely identify the content element/stream/ensemble).

The request for a group 604 is then received at the content informationmodule 606. In one embodiment, the content information module comprisesa content information database 608 adapted to store a set of metadata orother descriptors corresponding to each content element or stream. Thisset of descriptors is denoted in FIG. 6 as content information 612. Inone variant, each descriptor relates to a desired target demographic orpsychographic. For example, the advertisement for a program airing onMTV might include the descriptors: “Reality Show,” “Teenage,” “Drama,”and “Music.” Other descriptors might include the length or duration,type of encoding, content source, and so forth. The data may alsoinclude information on historical use of the content by the MSO; e.g.,number of times the content had been delivered, the time at which thecontent was last delivered, and/or the program channels on which theadvertisement was run. Myriad other descriptors have also beencontemplated in accordance with the present invention.

In some embodiments, the content information is retrieved based on anindexed lookup of a relational database, such as by a query comprising aprimary key. For example, the descriptors listed above might beretrieved by the input of “MTV AD#17,” where “TITLE” is the primary key.In alternative embodiments, other data structures may instead beutilized, such as arrays, lists, hash tables, trees, or combinationsthereof.

In the embodiment depicted by FIG. 6, content information 612corresponding to each content element, stream or ensemble is input intothe content information database 608 by a human operator interacting ata user interface 610, such as via a user terminal. In alternativeembodiments, content information 612 is streamed to the contentinformation database 608 from an outside electronic source, such as athird-party website.

Once the content information 612 is collected, it is then transmitted tothe group selection module 614. The group selection module 614 forms oneor more requests for a group 616 based on this content information 612.In one embodiment, the group selection module 614 further compriseslogic for selecting among various permutations of possible requestsbased on certain specified priorities. For example, the request might beto identify only those consumers who have an extreme interest inreality-based programming (for example, those consumers who watch overseven hours of programs of the reality genre in a given week).Alternatively, the request might be to identify those consumers with amoderate interest in reality shows (i.e., those who watch at least threehours of reality shows in a given week), a small interest in music(i.e., those who watch at least one hour of music channels in a givenmonth), and who are indicated to have at least one teenager in thehousehold. In some variants, these priorities are indicated explicitlyin the content information 612 such that each descriptor comprises anassociated priority.

The request for group 616 is then transmitted to the informationanalysis module 404 (FIG. 5), which returns the requested group 618.This requested group 618 is then ultimately passed to the scheduler 602along with any associated identifiers. In this manner, the scheduler canpopulate its schedule with references to optimal groups for each contentelement/stream/ensemble in its schedule.

In one embodiment, the content assignment manager 628 is responsible fortransmitting one or more (group, content) pairs to a content deliverymodule for content delivery. In some embodiments, content assignmentmanager 628 keeps track of all content delivered and targeted groups.This can be accomplished, for example, by writing logs and storing theselogs to one or more data files stored locally in the content assignmentmodule 404. In certain embodiments, the content assignment manager 628also updates content information 612 in order to reflect delivery datasuch as the number of times specific content has been delivered, thetime at which the content was last delivered, and/or the programchannels on which the content was delivered.

In an alternative mode of operation, the content assignment module 404is adapted to select content for a designated group.

The content selection module 622 retrieves group information 620 fromthe information analysis module 404. In some embodiments, this groupinformation 620 comprises a set of group descriptors, such as e.g., “55and older,” “restaurant,” “medicine,” and “travel.” Alternatively,referenced identifiers (such as numbers) can be used to convey the sameideas. In the above example, these descriptors indicate that thedesignated group comprises a specified number of consumers who are 55years of age or older, who like to dine in restaurants, who areinterested in or utilize medical treatments, and who frequently travel.Optionally, percentages or other such indicia can be used to representthis data, as well as data indicating the number or percentage ofconsumers who are members of multiple groups.

Once the demographics of the present group have been identified, thecontent selection module 622 requests the advertising or promotionalcontent identifiers 624 which best match this group information. In onevariant, this is accomplished by intelligently searching the contentinformation database 608 and returning the primary key of those entrieswhich match the descriptors present in the group information 620. Inembodiments where a relational database is not used, one or moresubstitute data structures are instead accessed accordingly (such as byreturning an array element, traversing a tree, or traversing alinked-list of elements).

According to one embodiment, the requested identifiers are thentransmitted to the content selection module 622. The content selectionmodule 622 then determines the optimal content to assign to the presentgroup. This may involve, for example, selecting between multiplepossible content elements, streams or ensembles using a specified systemof weights or priorities. For example, if it is known that the presentgroup of interest comprises 60% sports enthusiasts and 60% musicenthusiasts, and two identifiers have been returned corresponding to anadvertisement for a sporting event and an advertisement for a musicevent, the content selection module 622 may decide to select theadvertisement for the music event given that, e.g., this particularadvertisement has not been run as often as the other advertisement.Alternatively, the content selection module 622 may decide to select theadvertisement for the sporting event if it is determined that thesporting event is scheduled for an earlier date than the music event.Or, it may select both advertisements to be used as an ensemble. Notethat the above examples are merely illustrative of general principles;in practice, any means of content selection or content prioritizationmay be utilized in accordance with the scope of the present invention.

Once the group has been assigned suitable content, this assignment isthen conveyed to the content assignment manager 628. As mentioned above,the exemplary content assignment manager 628 is responsible fortransmitting one or more (group, content) pairs to a content deliverymodule for content delivery. According to some embodiments, the contentassignment manager 628 also updates content information 612 in order toreflect delivery data such as the number of times specific content hasbeen delivered, the time at which the content was last delivered, and/orthe program channels on which the content was delivered.

Software Architecture—

Referring now to FIGS. 7 a-7 d, exemplary embodiments of the softwarearchitecture useful with the present invention are described in detail.It will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill that while fourexemplary embodiments are described herein, other variations andcombinations of the following architectures may be utilized depending onthe desired attributes and network topology in use.

As shown in FIG. 7 a, a first embodiment of the architecture comprises anetwork portion 702 of the APCSM 401 software, which effectivelyfunctions as a supervisory process, and is in logical communication witha database 706 (which may or may not comprise the user informationrepository 402 previously discussed with respect to FIG. 4), as well asother network equipment and processes (not shown) in order to effectuatethe APCSM process methods and policies as previously described. Forexample, in one variant, the APCSM network portion 702 is in direct orindirect communication with a BSA switching hub process (not shown) inorder to implement program allocation policies. The aforementionednetwork portion 702 may for example be combined with other networkmanagement entities (such as the entity 198 of FIG. 1 c previouslydescribed), or may be stand-alone in nature.

As shown in FIG. 7 a, not all “subnetworks” in the network need beincluded within the purview of the APCSM network portion software 702;rather, the methodologies previously described may be implemented on aper-subnetwork (or per-node) basis if desired, although clearly theentire network can be included as well.

It is noted that in the embodiment of FIG. 7 a, no dedicated clientprocesses or portions (e.g., CPE software) are used; the APCSM networkportion 702 analyzes data it obtains from the database 706 (or othersuch sources, e.g., the user information repository 402) in order toderive its advertising and group selection policies. For instance, theAPCSM network portion 702 may access the database 706 in order todetermine a demographic/psychographic profile, historical tuning habits,codec capabilities, etc. for each CPE 106 of interest. The BSA serverlogs that are based on the client-server interactions as previouslydescribed may also be utilized for e.g., determination of a “predictive”program lineup for that node and/or estimation of predicted demand (see,e.g., co-owned and co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/800,093 entitled “METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR PREDICTIVE CAPACITYALLOCATION” filed May 4, 2007, and Ser. No. 11/243,720 entitled“SELF-MONITORING AND OPTIMIZING NETWORK APPARATUS AND METHODS” filedOct. 4, 2005, each of the foregoing incorporated by reference herein inits entirety), or even indirect assessment of CPE configuration asdescribed elsewhere herein. Hence, the foregoing methods can alsoadvantageously be implemented in a predictive or “look-ahead” fashion ifdesired, both in terms of what a given subscriber (or group ofsubscribers) may request in terms of programming, as well as futureprojected bandwidth demands and constraints (e.g., as a function of timeof day, day of the year, and so forth).

As shown in FIG. 7 b, a second embodiment of the software architecturecomprises a plurality of APCSM network portions 702 a, 702 b, in thisexample disposed at the headend 150 and one or more hubs of the network,respectively. The various network portions 702 a, 702 b are in logicalcommunication with one another (or at least the hub portions 702 b withthe headend portion 702 a), thereby allowing for sharing of information.The aforementioned database 706 may also be used to provide informationrelating to subscriber profile and demographics/psychographics, CPEconfiguration, etc. as in the embodiment of FIG. 7 a, thereby obviatingthe use of client portions within the network. Use of hub networkportions 702 b as illustrated also allows for a finer level of control;i.e., each hub process 702 b can in one variant controladvertising/promotion selection or group selection in a substantiallyautonomous fashion from other hubs if desired. This is to bedistinguished from the embodiment of FIG. 7 a, wherein the hubs, whilein one embodiment in communication with the headend process 702 a, haveno real innate “intelligence” of their own with respect toimplementation of the methodologies previously described. Rather, thehubs (and other device) of the embodiment of FIG. 7 a act merely asslaves to implement headend process policies or directives.

Moreover, in the event of a failure or problem with the headend APCSMportion 702 a, the individual hub portions 702 b can continue to operate(and optionally communicate with one another directly), therebyproviding a degree of fault tolerance and redundancy. To this extent, itwill be recognized that another variant of the invention utilizes onlythe hub portions 702 b (i.e., without the headend portion 702 a) in thisfashion, with either local individual databases, or logical connectiondirectly to the “master” database 706 (not shown).

As shown in FIG. 7 c, yet another embodiment of the softwarearchitecture of the invention comprises a headend APCSM portion orprocess 702 a in logical communication with client (e.g., CPE) portions704 disposed on all or a subset of the CPE within the network. Suchsubsets may be organized based on subnetwork/node as shown, or usinganother scheme. These client portions 704 act as remote proxies for theheadend APCSM process 702 a, allowing the MSO to control at leastaspects of the operation of the CPE 106 having such client portions 704,including notably the collection of CPE configuration information, aswell as historical data and even tuning information from the CPE. Thisapproach has the advantage that the MSO can gather much more accurateand relevant information about an individual CPE, including theoperation thereof over time. For example, the headend APCSM process 702a can periodically poll the client portions to determine operationalstatus, what channel is currently being tuned to, recent errors thathave been logged (e.g., inability to play a certain format of content,resource contention, etc.), and even invoke corrective action ifdesired. The client portion 704 can also be used to generatenotifications, telescoping advertisements, interactive displays orqueries on the user's display device or other output device aspreviously described (e.g., delay notification, request for inputregarding optimization/program selection options, etc.). Hence, theclient portion 704 of FIG. 7C provides the MSO with a “point ofpresence” within each CPE as well.

Referring now to FIG. 7 d, yet another embodiment of the softwarearchitecture is disclosed, wherein both client portions 704 andheadend/hub network portions 702 a, 702 b are utilized. This hybridapproach provides essentially all of the benefits of the embodiments ofFIGS. 7 b and 7 d previously described, yet at the price of somewhatgreater complexity.

Network Server—

Referring now to FIG. 8, one embodiment of an improved network device(e.g., server) with APCSM advertising and group selection capabilityaccording to the present invention is described. As shown in FIG. 8, thedevice 801 generally comprises and OpenCable-compliant server module. Itwill be appreciated that, consistent with which architecture of FIGS. 7a-7 d above is selected for use, the server device 801 may be disposedat various locations throughout the network. For example, in onevariant, the device 801 comprises a BSA network server module adaptedfor use at the hub site of FIG. 1 c, although the server may compriseother types of devices (e.g., VoD or application servers) within thenetwork as previously described, including those at the headend 150.

The device 801 comprises a digital processor(s) 804, random accessmemory (RAM) 805, storage device 806, and a plurality of interfaces 807for use with other network apparatus such as RF combiners, IP routersand other packet network devices, network management and provisioningsystems, local PCs, etc. Other components which may be utilized withinthe network device 801 include amplifiers, board level electroniccomponents, as well as media processors and other specialized SoC orASIC devices. Support for various processing layers and protocols (e.g.,802.3, DOCSIS MAC, OOB channels, DHCP, SNMP, H.323/RTP/RTCP, VoIP, SIP,etc.) may also be provided as required, such as in support of data and“rules” interchange between the network device 801 and the CPE whereapplicable. The APCSM supervisory process software (e.g., the network orhub portion of FIGS. 7 a-7 d) is also disposed to run on the servermodule 801, and can be configured to provide a functional interface withe.g., the headend or any client processes 702 a, 704 on the network CPE106 (where used), or other interposed or remote entities. Thesecomponents and functionalities are well known to those of ordinary skillin the cable and embedded system fields, and accordingly not describedfurther herein.

The device 801 of FIG. 8 may take any number of physical forms,comprising for example one of a plurality of discrete modules or cardswithin a larger headend, network edge, or hub device of the type wellknown in the art. The server may also comprise firmware, either alone orin combination with other hardware/software components such as thosepreviously described (e.g., disposed in the aforementioned headend oredge device). Alternatively, the device 801 may be a stand-alone deviceor module disposed at the headend, hub or other site, and may eveninclude its own RF front end (e.g., modulators, encryptors, etc.) oroptical interface so as to interface directly with various portions ofthe HFC network 101. Numerous other configurations may be used. Thedevice 801 may also be integrated with other types of components (suchas satellite transceivers, encoders/decoders, etc.) and form factors ifdesired.

It can also be appreciated that the methods of the present invention maybe practiced using any configuration or combination of hardware,firmware, or software, and may be disposed within one or any number ofdifferent physical or logical entities. For example, the APCSMfunctionality described above may take the form of one or more computerprograms (e.g., the network and client processes, 702, 704).Alternatively, such computer programs may have one or more componentsdistributed across various hardware environments at the same ordifferent locations, such as where the APCSM network process 702 isdistributed across multiple platforms at the hub site and the headend150 as shown in FIGS. 7 b and 7 d.

As yet another example, portions of the functionality may be rendered asa dedicated or application specific IC having code running thereon.Myriad different configurations for practicing the invention will berecognized by those of ordinary skill in the network arts provided thepresent disclosure.

CPE—

FIG. 9 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of the improved CPE 106according to the present invention. It will be appreciated that in MSOimplementations where no CPE or client portion of the APCSM softwareprocess is used (such as in FIGS. 7 a and 7 b previously discussed),literally any type of CPE 106 that is compatible with the bearer networkmay be used. However, in cases where an APCSM client portion is desired(e.g., to obtain subscriber/use/CPE profile or operational data and sendit back upstream to the APCSM network portion), the following exemplaryconfiguration may be used.

As shown in the simplified diagram of FIG. 9, the exemplary device 106generally comprises and OpenCable (OCAP)-compliant embedded systemhaving an RF front end 902 (including tuner and demodulator/decryptors)for interface with the HFC network 101 of FIGS. 1-1 c, digitalprocessor(s) 904, storage device 906, and a plurality of interfaces 908(e.g., video/audio interfaces, IEEE-1394 “Firewire”, USB,serial/parallel ports, etc.) for interface with other end-user apparatussuch as televisions, personal electronics, computers, WiFi or othernetwork hubs/routers, etc. Other components which may be utilized withinthe device (deleted from FIG. 9 for simplicity) various processinglayers (e.g., DOCSIS MAC or DAVIC OOB channel, MPEG, etc.) as well asmedia processors and other specialized SoC or ASIC devices. The CPE 106may also comprise an integrated HD decoder, thereby relieving anyconnected monitors or other devices from the requirement of having sucha decoder. These additional components and functionality are well knownto those of ordinary skill in the cable and embedded system fields, andaccordingly not described further herein.

The CPE 106 of FIG. 9 is also provided with an OCAP 1.0-compliantapplication and Java-based middleware which, inter alia, manages theoperation of the device and applications running thereon (including theclient process 404 where used). It will be recognized by those ofordinary skill that myriad different device and software architecturesmay be used consistent with the tuning functions of the presentinvention, the device of FIG. 9 being merely exemplary. For example,different middlewares (e.g., MHP, ARIB, or ACAP) may be used in place ofthe OCAP middleware of the illustrated embodiment.

The exemplary CPE 106 further comprises a conventional “Watch TV”application or the like, which services those program or user channelsavailable over the network. The Watch TV application, residing inmemory, provides such functions as channel navigation control, channelselection in response to a channel change event, etc. In one embodiment,the Watch TV (or EPG) application further comprises all necessaryfunctionality need to support the APCSM client process 704.

In another embodiment, the CPE 106 comprises a converged premisesdevice, such as for example that described in co-owned and co-pendingU.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/378,129 filed Mar. 16, 2006 andentitled “METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR CENTRALIZED CONTENT AND DATADELIVERY”, incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

Moreover, the foregoing embodiments of the CPE 106 may utilize anynumber of other methods and apparatus in conjunction with thefunctionality previously described herein in order to further extend itscapabilities. See, e.g., co-owned and co-pending U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 10/723,959 filed Nov. 24, 2003 entitled “METHODS AND APPARATUSFOR HARDWARE REGISTRATION IN A NETWORK DEVICE”; U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 10/773,664 filed Feb. 6, 2004 entitled “METHODS AND APPARATUSFOR DISPLAY ELEMENT MANAGEMENT IN AN INFORMATION NETWORK”, and U.S.patent application Ser. No. 10/782,680 filed Feb. 18, 2004 entitled“MEDIA EXTENSION APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR USE IN AN INFORMATIONNETWORK”, each of the foregoing incorporated herein by reference in itsentirety. Myriad other combinations and variations of the CPE 106 willalso be recognized by those of ordinary skill given the presentdisclosure.

As previously noted, the CPE 106 of FIG. 9 further comprises an APCSMclient portion 704, in the form of e.g., a software application runningon the CPE. This software application may be configured to perform anynumber of functions relating to targeted advertising or promotiondelivery, including without limitation: (i) forming a cryptographic hashof one or more CPE-specific variables in order to maintain the anonymityof the CPE/subscriber with respect to historical or profile data, aspreviously described; (ii) generating “telescoping” advertisementinterfaces or other user interfaces that allow the subscriber tointeract with the CPE; (iii) collecting data on user-specific activitiessuch as tuning or activity logs, power on/off times/duration, PPV/VoDrequests, frequency of use of other ancillary functions associated withthe CPE, DVR or monitor operation and use (such as via communicationsfrom a connected DVR or monitor device), etc.; (iv) identifying andcommunicating CPE hardware or software errors logged by the middleware;(v) identifying and communicating new hardware or software componentslogged with the middleware registry, and so forth.

Advertising Insertion Apparatus and Methods—

In content-based networks such as cable television networks,advertisements (including without limitation promotions, commercials,and short segments) that are viewed by subscribers can be controlled inseveral ways. Generally, two categories or subdivisions of thesetechniques exist: (i) national- or high-level insertion, and (ii) local-or low-level insertion.

Under national level insertion, national networks (such as NBC, ABC,etc.) are responsible for determining the advertisements or promotionsthat are resident in a given program stream. The pre-configured streamis delivered to the network operator (e.g., MSO), and the MSO merelythen delivers the stream (content and advertisements) to the relevantsubscribers over their network.

Under local-level insertion, the MSO (and even broadcast affiliates) caninsert locally-generated advertisements or commercials and other suchsegments into remotely distributed regional programs before they aredelivered to the network subscribers.

In terms of technology, three primary variants of advertisementinsertion technologies exist: (i) analog; (ii) hybrid analog/digital;and (iii) digital.

Under the analog approach, programs are distributed as NTSC video andinclude analog cues (tones) to the MSO that signal the local operator toreplace the national-level advertisements with locally-generated ones.Insertion equipment includes so-called ad-splicers and storage devicesthat is typically maintained in the MSO headend or other location. Theseanalog systems, however, have limited capability and do not supportadvanced functionality such as detecting a program change (e.g.,situations where the advertisement lineup should or could be changed dueto a change in the content broadcast schedule, such as where achampionship sporting event runs into overtime). Moreover, analogsystems make targeted/addressable advertising insertion difficult if notimpossible.

Under the hybrid approach, advertisements are stored in a digitallycompressed or encoded format, e.g., MPEG-2, in local storage. Both thesource (network) feed to the headend and the subscriber delivery channelcan be either analog or digital. If the network feed is analog, embeddedcue-tones are used to cue retrieval and conversion of the digitaladvertisement to analog. An analog splicer switches input from thenetwork feed to the converted local advertisement. When completed, thesplicer switches the input back to the network feed.

The analog output of the splicer is encoded to a digital format in thecase that the delivery channel to the subscriber is digital. If thechannel is digital, the analog output of the splicer is digitallyencoded. If the network feed and subscriber delivery channel are bothdigital, both the program network feed and the advertisement areconverted into analog prior to insertion of the advertisement. Theanalog content is then encoded back to digital before delivery to thesubscriber. Unfortunately, the aforementioned conversion from digital toanalog, and then back to digital, requires a high processing overheadand cost, and may significantly degrade video quality since theconversions are at least partly “lossy” in nature.

Under the fully digital approach, many of the aforementioned limitationsare overcome. Several standards have been developed to implement suchdigital techniques, including SCTE 35 2001 (formerly DVS253), “DigitalProgram Insertion Cueing Message for Cable”, and SCTE 30 2001 (formerlyDVS380), “Digital Program Insertion Splicing API”. These standardsdefine splicing of MPEG-2 streams for digital content insertion(including advertisements), and create standardized communicationprotocols for the insertion of content into any MPEG-2 output multiplexin the splicer.

By keeping the process of local advertisement insertion completelywithin the digital compressed domain, as well as keeping this content inthe compressed domain from the network operator to the subscribers, thequality of the network-supplied video and advertisements is maintainedeffectively intact.

Advantageously, the present invention can be used with any number ofdifferent advertising insertion or splicer architectures, whetheranalog, digital or hybrid in nature. See, for example, co-pending andco-owned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/662,776 filed Sep. 15, 2003entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ADVERTISEMENT DELIVERY WITHIN A VIDEOTIME SHIFTING ARCHITECTURE” (published as patent publication No.20050060745 on Mar. 17, 2005), which is incorporated by reference hereinin its entirety, for exemplary advertising insertion and splicerapparatus and methods in the context of, e.g., networked digital videorecorder (nDVR) or VoD delivery paradigms.

In one variant, advertising insertion is accomplished by routing thenetwork feed through a splicer. The splicer may be used to createmultiple output versions of the network feed for a current advertisingzone structure (e.g., CNN Boulder, CNN Denver). When an SCTE 35 cueenters the splicer on the network feed, the splicer generates a cuerequest to the advertising server management section (here, whichincludes the APCSM 401). The advertising server management sectiondetermines which advertisement or promotion to play, according to aschedule, as previously discussed. The advertising server managementsection then instructs the splicer to splice a content stream, andinstructs a content server to play the selected advertisement orpromotion at the designated time according to the schedule.

In the context of an exemplary nPVR (network personal video recorder)VoD architecture that implements splicing, the networks are run througha statistical multiplexer (stat-mux) splicer for two reasons: (i) byalways splicing in a default advertisement, a “splice point” is insertedin the compressed MPEG stream and this makes it trivial to split thecontent at the correct point; and (ii) the stat-mux clamps or adjuststhe input feed to VoD encoding standards. The networks are fed to theVoD server (optionally through a device that splits the content intochapters and advertisements). The VoD server treats the input stream asa file once ingested (and may or may not be stored depending on thecurrent acquisition rules for the program).

When a user (or the server in advance of a user request) requires astream, a “session” is first set up. The difference between this sessionand a normal unicast on-demand session is that this session is assigneda multicast IP. The multicast IP allows many edge QAMs to join thestream versus directing the stream directly to an edge QAM in unicast IPmode. This session basically is a minimal delay “StartOver” session,essentially passing the real-time network feed through the VoD server.When an SCTE 35 cue is seen on the RTA input section, an SCTE 30 cue issent to the advertising manager (ADM), which may incorporate the APCSM401 described previously herein. As is well known, the ADM can beimplemented externally to the VoD server, or internally to the VoDserver. If located internal to the VoD server, the SCTE 30 message isnot needed.

The ADM then selects an advertisement or promotion to play. In the caseof the aforementioned BSA network (FIG. 1 c) a DVS/629 or similarmechanism can be used to request a real-time match as to the best assetto play at this instant. This can be based e.g., on the number ofviewers, demographics, geographies, psychographics, or whatever otherinformation is available on the user or group of users that this feed isbeing delivered to, as previously described herein. The ADM theninstructs the VoD server the name of the selected advertising orpromotional content element to splice in. When the VoD server detectsthe appropriate splice point, timed by the SCTE 35 cue and thepreviously inserted default advertisement, it performs a playlistdiversion between the RTA content and the selected content element.After the advertisement or promotion content finishes, the VoD serverplaylist diverts back to the RTA stream.

Business Methods and “Rules” Engine—

In another aspect of the invention, the aforementioned APCSM process 702(e.g., rendered as one or more computer programs) optionally includes anoperations and/or business rules engine. This engine comprises, in anexemplary embodiment, a series of software routines running on thenetwork device 801 of FIG. 8 or other associated hardware/firmwareenvironment that are adapted to control the operation of the targetedadvertising/promotion algorithms previously described. These rules mayalso be fully integrated within the APCSM process itself, and controlledvia e.g., a GUI on a PC connected to the network device 801. In effect,the rules engine comprises a supervisory entity which monitors andselectively controls or coordinates with, via the APCSM process 702and/or CPE process 704, the advertising/promotion insertion functions ata higher level, so as to implement desired operational or businessrules.

The rules engine can in one embodiment be considered an overlay of sortsto the algorithms of the APCSM 702 previously described. For example,the APCSM process 702 may invoke certain operational protocols ordecision processes based on data received from the CPE 106 (e.g.,historical activity data, CPE configuration, etc.), subscriber-specificdata (e.g., profile, preferences, demographic, etc.), networkoperational or historical data, geographic data, etc. However, theseprocesses may not always be compatible with higher-level business oroperational goals, such as maximizing profit on a network-wide basis (orafter consideration of other factors not input to the APCSM algorithms,such as taxes, cost/benefit of certain alternative courses of action,maintenance or repair costs, additional equipment leasing or use costs,etc.), or system reliability and/or flexibility. Moreover, the APCSM maybe operating on a per-CPE or per-request basis (i.e., evaluating eachindividual request effectively in isolation, and generating a decisionor recommendation without considering larger patterns or decisions beingmade in the service group or network as a whole).

Hence, when imposed, the business/operational rules can be used todynamically (or manually) control the operation of the APCSM process 702(and/or client process 704), in conjunction with the operational“recommendations” generated by the APCSM 702 as part of its advertisingor group selection functions previously described.

For example, one rule implemented by the rules engine may compriseselectively servicing (or at least queuing first) requests from certainusers first with targeted advertising or promotions; e.g., those with ahigher subscription priority or level under bandwidth-limited cases, andonly after this tier of users is satisfied, servicing any remainingcontent requests. This assures that the MSO's “premium” clients receivethe most tailored advertising or promotional content first, therebyincreasing their satisfaction. In one variant, subscribers are dividedinto tiers (a hierarchy), and certain tiers of the hierarchy areserviced to a prescribed level first.

Another rule might allow for the relegation of low-priority requests tothe back of the service queue; e.g., those associated with subscriberswho have elected to receive content on a less-than-timely or delayedbasis (perhaps in exchange for financial or other considerations). Suchsubscribers effectively do not care when they receive the content(within certain constraints, obviously), and hence the MSO canprioritize other requests first. When these latent requests aresubsequently processed, appropriate advertising or promotional contentfor that later time can be selected.

Similarly, capacity (e.g., bandwidth) for servicing requests can beallocated to those users which, e.g., based on demographics, historicalpatterns, geographic area, etc. will make best use of the bandwidth interms of reaching the desired penetration (e.g., number, type, and/orquality of impressions), monetary return, profit, or some other businessperformance metric. For example, the MSO might invoke a business rulethat selectively processes content requests in terms of advertisementselection for the best or most lucrative zip codes (or demographicslices) first. Such identification of certain zip codes can be performedusing, inter alia, the methods and apparatus set forth in U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/186,452 entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FORBOUNDARY-BASED NETWORK OPERATION”, previously referenced andincorporated herein.

Moreover, a cost/benefit optimization technique may be utilizedconsistent with the present invention. For example, a decision processmay be used to evaluate various options for use of network capacity(such as bandwidth), and determine which is/are most desirable from anoperations or business standpoint.

A composite or weighted grade can also be formed, such as where theoverall grade of a prospective insertion includes: (i) a metricindicating the level of demographic/psychographic match; (ii) a metricindicating the level of context match or correlation; and (iii) a metricindicating the relative or absolute profit or revenue benefit from theproposed insertion. Myriad other schemes for ranking or prioritizingadvertising/promotional content for insertion based on such factors willbe readily appreciated by those of ordinary skill given the presentdisclosure.

It will also be appreciated that the decisions generated by the APCSMselection analysis can be manually or semi-manually utilized by networkoperators, such as in the form of a recommendation rather than a hardand fast decision point. For instance, the APCSM may present arecommended choice or selection to a human operator, thereby letting theoperator decide whether to implement it. This variant of the inventionallows for the intangible but often important “gut feeling” or intrinsicknowledge of the operator to be factored into the decision process. Theoperator may also be able to identify trends or patterns in subscriberactivity, behavior, network operation, etc. that the APCSM or rulesengine cannot, such as the topical popularity of a given program oradvertisement, in effect allowing the operator to override the APCSMwhen his/her knowledge or intuition says that a different course shouldbe followed.

Enforcement of the foregoing business rules may be executed by serversor other devices separately for each service (e.g. nDVR, BSA or VoD) orcentrally via the controlling actions of a master APCSM, SRM (Sessionand Resource Manager) or other network agent.

In one embodiment, advertisers or even content providers (e.g., studios,networks, etc.) would pay a premium or provide other incentives to theMSO to have particular advertisements or promotions prioritized overothers targeted to the same demographic. For example, the MSO mayprogram its rules engine to select the more lucrative of variousadvertiser's content (i.e., the one for which they receive greaterpayment or other consideration for using). Similarly, a more incrementalapproach can be applied, such as where various advertisements orpromotions are “graded” based on profit/revenue and/or operationalconsiderations (i.e., those which earn most and/or give highest usersatisfaction, etc. receive a higher grade), and the insertion atparticular points within one or more program channels based on suchgrade(s).

Since the program-coupled fee structure of the prior art is not utilizedin the exemplary embodiments, the present invention advantageouslyprovides opportunities for many different fee or consideration models.As previously described, the prior art fee structure is generally basedon the program(s) during which the advertisement is run, and the numberof different “runs” (or total time of run). So, for example, running acar advertisement twice during a very “Nielsen rating”-popular programin prime time might cost the advertiser significantly more than the sameadvertisement run once during off-prime hours and a less popularprogram. In contrast, the dynamic targeted approach of the presentinvention is not bound to insert the car advertisement at any given timeor slot, or coupled with any particular program. It may be decided, forexample, that the advertiser will achieve maximum penetration to thetarget demographic by inserting the car advertisement 5 times overmultiple different programs that are less popular, but more narrowlytailored to the target demographic. For instance, a Nielsen-typeapproach may indicate that 10 million viewers will view a prime-timeprogram such as American Idol, and that many of those viewers will be18-30 year-old females. However, if the advertiser seeks to penetrate amore focused demographic (e.g., 27-30 year-old females that live in theSouthern California area and which have college degrees, since theirmarket research indicates that most buyers of their product fall intosuch a category), it may be more efficacious to run the advertiser'sspot multiple times but only within Southern California markets, andonly on prescribed channels which the MSO's historical analysisindicates that such 27-30 year-old college educated females watch.

In another aspect of the invention, a “click-through” or similar revenuemodel can be employed for determining payments or cost of theadvertising or promotions. As is well known in the context of theInternet, click-through models in general generate revenue for a carrierbased at least in part on the number of certain events that occur (e.g.,clicks or interactions with a certain advertisement's hyperlink orwebsite). Similarly, interactions by a subscriber with an entityassociated with the MSO can be recorded and used as a basis fordetermining advertising pricing or other factors. This can be modeledmultiple ways, such as where the more interactions that occur, the morethe advertiser pays (based on ostensibly coupling the more interactionswith more “impressions” and hence prospective value to the advertiser,and greater burden on the MSO infrastructure). In one variant, theaforementioned telescoping advertisements are used as the basis of thismodel; e.g., when a subscriber telescopes and advertisement/promotion,or interacts some other way with it, this is considered an affirmativeshow of interest (or at least impression).

It will be recognized that while certain aspects of the invention aredescribed in terms of a specific sequence of steps of a method, thesedescriptions are only illustrative of the broader methods of theinvention, and may be modified as required by the particularapplication. Certain steps may be rendered unnecessary or optional undercertain circumstances. Additionally, certain steps or functionality maybe added to the disclosed embodiments, or the order of performance oftwo or more steps permuted. All such variations are considered to beencompassed within the invention disclosed and claimed herein.

While the above detailed description has shown, described, and pointedout novel features of the invention as applied to various embodiments,it will be understood that various omissions, substitutions, and changesin the form and details of the device or process illustrated may be madeby those skilled in the art without departing from the invention. Thisdescription is in no way meant to be limiting, but rather should betaken as illustrative of the general principles of the invention. Thescope of the invention should be determined with reference to theclaims.

What is claimed is: 1.-40. (canceled)
 41. A method of deliveringtargeted advertising or promotional content to a set of users within acontent delivery network, said method comprising: receiving a requestfrom a third party for delivery of said advertising or promotionalcontent over said network, said advertising or promotional contenthaving at least one target demographic or psychographic associatedtherewith; obtaining information about said set of users of saidnetwork; identifying at least a portion of said set of users ascorrelating to said at least one target demographic or psychographicbased at least in part on said information; delivering said advertisingor promotional content to said at least portion of said set of usersbased at least in part on said at least one demographic orpsychographic; and receiving consideration based at least in part onsaid act of delivering.
 42. The method of claim 41, further comprisingproviding said third party an assurance or guarantee that saidadvertising or promotional content will be delivered to at least acertain number of said users within said target demographic.
 43. Themethod of claim 41, further comprising providing said third party anassurance or guarantee that said advertising or promotional content willbe perceived by at least a certain number of said set of users withinsaid target demographic.
 44. The method of claim 41, wherein saidreceiving information about said set of users comprises receivinginformation about said set of users by querying a user-specific databasewhen said user specific database does not contain information enablingpersonal identification of any users in said set.
 45. The method ofclaim 41, wherein said network comprises a cable television network, andsaid set of users comprises a set of subscribers of said network thathave opted-into a program offered by an operator of said network wherebysaid information can be obtained, said set of subscribers receivingconsideration for opting-into said program.
 46. A method for non-programrestricted advertising or promotion delivery within a content deliverynetwork, said method comprising: receiving a request from a third partyfor delivery of said advertising or promotional content over saidnetwork, said advertising or promotional content having at least onetarget demographic or psychographic associated therewith; obtaininginformation about a first set of users of said network; identifying atleast a portion of said first set of users as belonging to said at leastone target demographic or psychographic based at least in part on saidinformation; and delivering said advertising or promotional content tosaid at least portion of said first set of users based at least in parton said at least one target demographic or psychographic, said act ofdelivering being substantially agnostic to a program content beingdelivered to said at least portion of users substantiallycontemporaneously with said advertising or promotional content.
 47. Amethod of delivering targeted advertising content to one or more usersof a content delivery network, comprising: determining one or moredescriptive features associated with said advertising content;identifying one or more target users of said network based at least inpart on said descriptive features; identifying one or morenon-advertising content elements to be delivered over said network; anddelivering said advertising content to said identified one or moretarget users along with said non-advertising content elements; whereinsaid advertising content and said non-advertising content elements arecontextually related to one another.
 48. The method of claim 47, whereinsaid contextual relationship comprises at least one of: a common theme;a common persona; or a common inanimate object.
 49. The method of claim47, wherein at least one of said one or more descriptive featurescomprises a basis for said contextual relationship.
 50. A method ofdelivering a plurality of related secondary content elements to one ormore users of a content delivery network, comprising: determining one ormore descriptive features associated with said plurality of secondarycontent elements; identifying one or more target users of said networkbased at least in part on said descriptive features; identifying one ormore primary content elements to be delivered over said network; anddelivering said plurality of secondary content elements to saididentified one or more target users along with said primary contentelements, said delivering comprising delivering thereof according to aprescribed schedule.
 51. The method of claim 50, wherein said secondarycontent elements are contextually related to said primary contentelements.
 52. The method of claim 50, wherein said secondary contentelements are each contextually related to one another, yet differ fromeach other in at least one aspect.
 53. The method of claim 50, whereinsaid prescribed schedule comprises: delivering said secondary contentelements at different points within a first same one of said one or moreprimary content elements; delivering said secondary content elementssubstantially one after another with no substantial intervening primarycontent; or delivering said secondary content elements within a secondsame one of said one or more primary content elements, each second sameone of said one or more primary content elements being delivered via adifferent program channel.
 54. The method of claim 50, wherein saidprescribed schedule comprises a schedule of said primary contentelements and said secondary content elements arranged in a prescribedorder.
 55. The method of claim 50, wherein said secondary contentelements delivered in said prescribed schedule are selected based atleast in part on metadata associated with said secondary contentelements relating to behavior of said one or more target users.
 56. Amethod of advertising or promoting goods and services over a contentdelivery network having a plurality of users, comprising: delivering oneor more advertising content elements of an advertiser of a targetdemographic within said plurality of users, said act of delivering beingsubstantially independent of a program content with which saidadvertising content is delivered; and providing information to saidadvertiser relating to said act of delivering of said one or moreadvertising content elements.
 57. The method of claim 56, wherein saidact of providing information comprises providing data relating to actualor estimated impressions of said one or more advertising contentelements by said target demographic.
 58. The method of claim 56, furthercomprising a guarantee to said advertiser that said elements have beendelivered to a prescribed number or to a prescribed percentage ofviewers in said target demographic.
 59. The method of claim 58, whereinsaid network comprises a broadcast-switched architecture (BSA) cabletelevision network and said delivering comprises switching said BSAnetwork to selectively provide said one or more advertising contentelements to said target demographic.
 60. The method of claim 59, whereinsaid act of switching said BSA network to selectively provide said oneor more advertising content elements to said target demographiccomprises instantiating a new program stream comprising said one or moreadvertising content elements for a user within said target demographicwhen said user requests a channel change, said switching comprisingrebinding an existing program stream to a new source, said new sourcebeing adapted to provide said one or more advertising content elements.61. The method of claim 56, wherein said act of providing informationcomprises providing data relating to indirect indicia of impressions ofsaid elements by said target demographic, said data comprising at leastone of: data relating to user tuning events that occurred duringdelivery said one or more advertising content elements; or data relatingto user interaction with a telescoping function during delivery of saidone or more advertising content elements.